FOLLOWING FRANCES' PATH: Surprising forecasters, fast-moving Jeanne leaves six dead and $4-billion in insured damage. TURN ON THE LIGHTS: Nearly a half-million people in the bay area are left without power, and traffic signals are out of service.
By MATTHEW WAITE, CHASE SQUIRES, GRAHAM BRINK and STEPHEN NOHLGREN
Published September 27, 2004
VERO BEACH - The toll on Florida this time: six dead, 1.1-million homes and businesses without power, at least $4-billion in insured damages and a punch-drunk state wondering how much more it can take.
Hurricane Jeanne made landfall at Hutchinson Island, about 35 miles north of West Palm Beach, right where Hurricane Frances came ashore three weeks ago - a rare deja vu that amazed experts at the National Hurricane Center.
Carrying Category 3 winds of 120 mph, Jeanne zipped across the state as if Frances had left a road map, never deviating from the earlier storm's track by more than 10 or 15 miles until Jeanne approached the Gulf of Mexico early Sunday evening.
The Tampa Bay area, which has largely dodged Florida's Year of Storms, got its first brush with a hurricane in 36 years when Jeanne's weakening center sliced into northeast Hillsborough County before turning north as a tropical storm.
At least it was over quickly.
So far, Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne have killed more than 75 people in the Sunshine State. Tens of thousands have lost their homes or are muddling along with plastic sheeting for roofs and no air-conditioning - some for the second or third time. Native Floridians who once scoffed at storms now find themselves hoisting plywood and cursing five-day tracking maps.
Not since Texas in 1886 has a state experienced four hurricane hits in one year. Florida has now suffered through two monsters (Charley and Ivan) and two bullies (Frances and Jeanne) in a mere six weeks - and hurricane season has two months to go. The hurricanes prompted the largest relief effort in the Federal Emergency Management Agency's history.
In a now-familiar drill, Gov. Jeb Bush followed the storm's wake Sunday to assess damage and offer reassurances.
"This will become a memory," Bush said. "This does come to an end, and when it does we can probably use the term "normal' again."
Still, with Jeanne dumping heavy rain, there was fear of flooding in the days to come from swollen rivers in east and central Florida, already saturated by two previous hurricanes.
Satellite photographs showed Jeanne's extended winds cutting a 400-mile-wide swath from Daytona Beach to south of Miami. More than half the state's schools will be closed today. In the Panhandle, where Jeanne was expected to cross this morning, 70,000 people are still without power because of Ivan. Nearly 2-million homes and businesses lost power, though the number had dropped to 1.1-million late Sunday.
Jeanne hit hardest on the east coast, just north of landfall, where many residents refused to evacuate homes damaged by Frances. It was tough to determine which hurricane caused what damage.
Condos along the Hutchinson Island beachfront were battered by waves, and the first floors of many buildings were filled with sand. In Port St. Lucie, mobile homes that had been battered by Frances were flattened by Jeanne. In Vero Beach, where Bush said Sunday's damage appeared to be the worst, streets were flooded and impassable, trees and power lines were down and storefronts were shattered.
Indian River County received 10 to 12 inches of rain, said emergency preparedness coordinator Nathan McCollum. Because Jeanne's eye passed a bit to the south, the winds were unrelenting in Indian River, which never enjoyed the calm that comes when the eye passes overhead. The entire county lacks power; not one traffic signal works.
Every home in Sebastian is like its own island," said McCollum. "People aren't driving around, because they can't get out of their driveways."
Hundreds, if not thousands, of beachside residents were marooned by what McCollum termed "Frances phobia." During the earlier storm, beach residents evacuated and were not allowed to return for days, only to find minimal damage.
This time, they ignored evacuation orders and are now stuck without power behind flooded streets, eroded beach roads and bridges that might not open until Tuesday.
Throughout the county, nearly every side road was at least partially blocked by fallen trees, dangling power lines or flooding. Nightly curfews are expected for several days.
In Stuart, Martin Memorial Medical Center lost its roof. The hospital was wet but open. Most hospitals in the area are full or nearly full, said state health administrator Allan Levine. Officials had begun exploring ways to move hospital patients to nursing homes if necessary.
Federal emergency officials promised to bring aid soon and not just to Florida. The waterlogged east coast can expect more heavy rainfall from Jeanne. The storm's predicted route carries it through Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia and Maryland before heading out to sea on Wednesday.
The four hurricanes and their remnants have forced the Federal Emergency Management Agency to station more than 5,000 workers from Louisiana to Vermont, director Michael Brown said. It eclipses the 1994 earthquake in Northridge, Calif., and the 2001 terrorist attacks.
"You're going to have some areas that have been hit once, twice and sometimes maybe three times," Brown said, "and just as you think you are making headway on debris removal, for example, you've got to go back in."
Floridians along the tandem path of Frances and Jeanne know about double-whammies. Jeanne carried more intense winds than Frances but moved more rapidly. Frances was a cruel slug, dropping torrents of rain but taking twice as long to cross the state.
Sunday was a day for comparisons.
Paul Brezniak's mobile home in Port St. Lucie is a pile of which-hurricane-did-what. Frances took the Florida room and the roof, leaving only ceiling joists, but it left the sliding glass door that separated the Florida room from the rest of the home.
Jeanne took off the glass door and shattered the windows that survived Frances.
What Jeanne didn't seem to affect were ruined couches, siding and other debris stacked up in Brezniak's driveway, leftovers from you-know-who.
"You've had three weeks and you're just getting your spirits up a bit," Brezniak said. "We hoped so much that it would turn."
Bob Ewry, who lives in a Vero Beach mobile home park, said he rode out Frances just fine. "Not this one. This time, I'm probably totaled."
Ewry, 57, had just met with a FEMA representative Saturday to see about a loan to repair minor Frances damage. On Sunday, he returned home after evacuating to find his living room ceiling collapsed. Insulation hung low, the carpet squished where he walked. Outside, his carport no longer exists.
All through his neighborhood, tattered aluminium clanged in the wind after the storm passed. Big chunks of metal hung from the trees or tumbled by in the gusty breezes. Porches and walls were ripped from homes.
Jeanne's eye cut through Polk County, just as Charley and Frances had done a few weeks earlier. Roofs flew off, 8 inches of rain fell and dusk to dawn curfews are now in place.
"This one was pretty widespread," said Pete McNally, Polk's emergency operations director.
Linda and Tom Mizell of Bartow were jolted awake early Sunday when a massive oak fell through their roof. Tom Mizell heard the crack and then saw limbs sticking through the ceiling. Rain began falling on him. It took him a few minutes to get the bedroom door unstuck and squeeze out.
They had some minor damage in Hurricanes Frances and Charley. Linda Mizell was happy they were both okay, and that they have insurance.
"You look at such a large thing in your house and you don't even know where to start," she said while squishing around on a green carpet. "We'll get by. That's what everyone has to do. Just keep going."
The Orlando area, socked by Charley and soaked by Frances, escaped major damage this time, residents said.
"Charley already did all the damage," said 38-year-old Eddie Caraballo.
Over the next several days, flooding will get worse, not better, said state meteorologist Ben Nelson. River basins expected to overflow include: St. Johns, Kissimmee, Hillsborough, Withlacoochee, Myakka and Peace.
Flooding near Lake Okeechobee was a particular concern because the Kissimmee River is pouring in tons of water, said Colleen Castille, the state's top environmental official. The lake was at 15.4 feet Sunday, but another 18 inches was expected to arrive in the next couple of days.
"We begin to get concerned at lake levels of 17 feet," Castille said.
The dead included a 60-year-old Brevard County man found lying in water after consuming a large amount of alcohol during a hurricane party.
A lot more people rode out Jeanne than the season's other hurricanes. Only about 60,000 people were in shelters on Sunday.
Times staff writers Steve Bousquet and Jamie Thompson contributed to this report, which includes material from the Associated Press.
