Neighborhoods leveled by ferocious winds began humming with chain saws on Sunday in the southwestern Florida city that took the worst beating from savage Hurricane Charley.

Surrounded by debris, residents of Punta Gorda tentatively began rebuilding their lives. They propped up ladders and stretched tarpaulins or sheets of dark green plastic over damaged roofs while movers and handymen tacked signs on lightpoles, offering their services.

Punta Gorda, a Gulf Coast city of 15 000, was devastated by Charley as it charged over Florida on Friday, the strongest hurricane to hit the state in 12 years.

At LA Ainger Middle School, where the Red Cross is providing shelter to hundreds left homeless, a woman leafed through advertising circulars, putting folds on pages for items she needs but will be unable to buy until stores reopen in a few days, or possibly weeks.

Patrick DeRoche, 13, stood guard over the remains of his family’s mobile home in Punta Gorda while his mom ran errands.

“This was my room,” he said, pointing to an open space. His sodden mattress, clothes and shoes littered the floor. In a bathroom nearby, a foot of dirty water stood in the bathtub.

In the rear, walls tilted crazily, doors were missing and windows blown out. The carpet was soaked and flies buzzed through the interior.

“My PlayStation 2, all my games got wet. We’re trying to dry them out at a friend’s place,” Patrick said. Patrick said he stayed at a friend’s place during the storm but his mother and brother were in the mobile home.

“She started crying when I phoned her during the storm. She said, ‘Patrick, we don’t have a home anymore.’ She said my brother almost flew out of the trailer. Mom was holding him in, he almost flew away.” “We already have a plan, though,” Patrick added. “We’re probably going to wipe out this house and use insurance to build a new one, but not like this. A brick house.”

National Guard troops erected tents at roadsides. Rescue crews set up tents in parking lots. Earth movers and heavy military equipment sat in a field while fleets of power company repair trucks crowded a church parking lot.

Volunteers set up mobile kitchens on street corners and people lined up for food. Tractor trailers filled with ice or bottled water sat at roadsides. By dusk, emergency officials planned to have four stations established where residents could get water, ice, food and even take a shower, the first in three days for many. And despite disaster, life began to move forward.

Kristine Vest, a dispatcher with the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office, was to have married fiance Chris Cowan on the beach on Sunday.