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The four hurricanes that battered Florida in a six-week period delivered a crippling blow to the state's recreational boating industry.
"We estimate total recreational boat losses to be somewhere in the area of $680-million," said Carol Robertson with BoatU.S.'s Marine Insurance Division. "This year has been a real record-breaker."
Those figures do not include damage to commercial vessels, marinas or dry storage facilities. That is expected to total in the hundreds of millions.
"It is going to take a long time to recover," said Mark Mitchell, a self-professed "go fast" enthusiast who helped organize an offshore powerboat race scheduled to be held in Pensacola last weekend.
"We had one four-story (dry storage) facility that is now just a one-story facility ... Ivan just flattened it."
Hurricane Charley was the first to batter the Sunshine State on Aug. 13. The landfall forecast was for Tampa Bay and its 100,000 registered boats. But Charley veered right and plowed straight up Charlotte Harbor, one of the Florida's most popular fishing and boating destinations.
The Category 4 storm cut a new pass through North Captiva Island, tore the signs off navigational markers, destroyed marinas and filled channels with sand.
The Sarasota Herald Tribune reported that Charley caused $100-million in damage to pleasure boats alone. State officials estimate that the cost to clear Charlotte Harbor of trees, docks and other debris will top $24-million.
Damage to marinas, the support system for Charlotte Harbor's lucrative snook and tarpon fisheries, was unprecedented. The popular Burnt Store Marina lost 100 slips.
But in some cases, proper hurricane preparation made all the difference.
"We spent a lot of time making sure everything was secure," said Steve Page, who operates a marina near Sanibel Island. "We had a lot of damage to buildings, but we didn't lose a boat."
The amount of damaged or lost boats totaled $130-million. But Frances, which made landfall on the east coast and cut a swath across the state Sept. 4-6, was even more destructive.
The storm, which lingered over land much longer than Charley, caused massive flooding and more than $300-million in damage to recreational boats.
Ivan, the third hurricane, came ashore in Alabama Sept. 16-17, but the strong northeast corner pummeled Pensacola.
"People who had been through these storms before knew enough to move their boats up into one of the bayous," Mitchell said. "Those who didn't found their boats in somebody's back yard."
Mitchell, who owns a weekend home on Pensacola Beach, said he found two 40-footers behind his house.
"The public still isn't allowed on the beach," he said. "There is a lot of stuff floating in the water."
The Pensacola News Journal reported that repairs and reconstruction on the area's three largest marinas - Bahia Mar, Palafox Pier and Seville Harbor - will cost $7-million, and that figure does not include the damage to privately owned recreational boats. According to BoatU.S., that number could surpass $150-million.
Jeanne, the last storm, followed Frances' path across the state Sept. 25-26. Damage estimates are not complete, but the hurricane is believed to have destroyed another $100-million worth of boats.
The total recreational boat damage from the four storms surpasses that of Hurricane Andrew, which hit the $500-million mark in 1992.
"Several years ago my supervisor asked me to come up with a plan on how to handle two major hurricanes in one season," Robertson said. "At the time I didn't think it was possible, but I went ahead and did it anyway. Now I am glad that I did.
"I have been in this business for 21 years. I have never seen anything like this."