Jeanne slams into Florida coast

Posted 7:42AM on Sunday 26th September 2004 ( 20 years ago )

STUART, FLORIDA - Hurricane Jeanne barreled up Florida's Atlantic Coast early Sunday with 120-mph wind and drenching rain, unceremoniously putting the weather-weary state in the record books. The Category 3 storm became the fourth to pummel Florida in a single hurricane season, something that has not happened since 1886 when Texas was the target. The three other hurricanes - Charley, Frances and Ivan - have all hit within the last month and a half, about midway through the June-to-November season. Jeanne came ashore shortly before midnight near the southern tip of Hutchinson Island, about 5 miles southeast of Stuart. Just three weeks ago, Frances ravaged the same area. Angry swells licked pieces of mobile homes out to sea. At one of the causeway bridges leading to the barrier island, a sailboat bashed against the seawall and sank. Within minutes, all that remained above water was less than a foot of its yellow mast. Debris left from the other hurricanes flew through the air as Jeanne made landfall. And the storm did its own damage, ripping off rooftops and cutting power to hundreds of thousands. Emergency management officials were waiting until daylight to assess damage. The previous hurricanes caused billions of dollars in damage and killed at least 70 people. Jeanne was expected to make a turn to the north over central Florida and stay inland over Georgia and the Carolinas through Tuesday. By early Sunday, it had weakened to a Category 2 storm with 110-mph top sustained winds. "God, I hope it's over," Jaye Bell said early Sunday. The bartender from Jensen Beach rode out the storm at a Ramada Inn in Stuart. The proximity of Jeanne and Frances impressed Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Mayfield said it was the "first time ever that we know of" that two hurricanes landed so close in place and time. Rainfall totals of 5 to 10 inches were expected in the storm's path, and flooding could be a major concern because previous hurricanes had saturated the ground and filled canals, rivers and lakes. In Fort Pierce and Port St. Lucie, several people were rescued from homes during the relative calm of Jeanne's eye. No one was injured, but the residents "didn't think they were going to make it through the storm," St. Lucie County sheriff's Capt. Nate Spera said Sunday. State officials had urged 2 million people to evacuate. Many like Ada Dent heeded the warning and took cover in shelters. "Before I left home, I prayed over my house and I told God it was in his hands," said Dent, who went to a shelter in West Palm Beach with her 2-year-old grandson. In Stuart, parts of the waterproof roof covering at Martin Memorial Medical Center blew off, said administrative nursing supervisor Sharon Andre. No injuries were reported. Elsewhere in Stuart, part of a condominium roof collapsed. One person was rescued. About 400 people were transferred from a shelter at an elementary school in Melbourne after parts of its roof flew off, police Lt. Jeff Koska said. No one was injured, and the evacuees were taken to another shelter, he said. About 100 patients at a similar shelter in Fort Pierce were transferred after its roof started leaking, but no one was hurt. In Cocoa Beach about 80 miles north of Stuart, Paul and Ann Jutras weathered another storm in their reinforced house that they claimed was hurricane-proof. Sitting two blocks from the Atlantic Ocean, the structure has two roofs - in case one is damaged. In Frances, "we got pounded for 37 hours, but the wind would blow for about 20 or 25 minutes and there would be a lull. This one, it's just not letting up at all," Paul Jutras said. At 6 a.m. EDT Sunday, Jeanne was centered about 15 miles northeast of Sebring and about 70 miles south of Orlando. It was moving west and slightly to the north at 13 mph. Earlier, Jeanne tore across the Bahamas, leaving some neighborhoods submerged under 5 feet of water. No deaths or serious injuries were reported there, but the storm was earlier blamed for more than 1,500 deaths in floods in Haiti. Jeanne followed Charley, which struck Aug. 13 and devastated southwest Florida; Frances, which struck Labor Day weekend; and Ivan, which blasted the western Panhandle when it made landfall in nearby Alabama on Sept. 16. The storms caused billions of dollars in combined damage and killed at least 70 people in Florida alone. Officials ran out of time to remove tall piles of debris - from branches to sodden furniture and building materials - that remained on neighborhood streets, left over from Frances. The storm made even more difficult the formidable job of keeping the lights on in Florida. Early Sunday, about 1.1 million homes and businesses were without power, including much of Palm Beach County. Officials feared the storm could leave millions without electricity, some for three weeks or more. Gas stations and businesses were boarded up and deserted, and law enforcement took to the radio airwaves, saying that anyone who was outside their homes after the 6 p.m. curfew Saturday would be jailed. It was unknown how many people urged to evacuate actually did, but state officials said more than 42,500 people, many with homes already damaged by Frances, stayed at shelters. LaTrease Haliburton reluctantly checked into a West Palm Beach shelter with her 6-year-old daughter, who has had nightmares since Frances caved in the bathroom ceiling in her family's apartment. "I want to make sure my daughter isn't as scared this time," Haliburton said.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2004/9/150960