HUTCHINSON ISLAND, Fla. – Jeanne, Florida’s fourth hurricane in six weeks, piled on destruction in already ravaged areas Sunday, slicing across the state with howling wind that rocketed debris from earlier storms and torrents of rain that turned streets into rivers.
At least six people died in the storm, which came ashore in the same area hit three weeks ago by Hurricane Frances and was headed for the Panhandle, where 70,000 homes and businesses remained without power because of Hurricane Ivan 10 days earlier.
The storm peeled the roofs off buildings, toppled light poles, destroyed a deserted community center in Jensen Beach and flooded some bridges from the mainland to the Atlantic coast’s barrier islands. More than 2.5 million homes and businesses were without power late Sunday.
“The last three weeks have been horrific,” said Joe Stawara, owner of a Vero Beach mobile home park where about half the 232 trailers were damaged. “And just when we start to turn the corner, this happens.”
Until this weekend, no state had suffered a four-hurricane pounding in one season since Texas in 1886. And the hurricane season still has two months to go.
By late Sunday afternoon, Jeanne weakened to a strong tropical storm, with sustained wind near 65 mph.
Once inland, Jeanne’s 400-mile diameter system trudged across the state, passing northeast of Tampa. It then headed toward the Panhandle, which was still recovering from Ivan.
Official Sunday-night rain totals included 5.84 inches in Melbourne, 5.35 inches in Orlando and 2.69 inches at Palm Beach International Airport, but meteorologists said the actual totals probably were much higher because heavy winds can make rain gauges inaccurate.
Single-engine planes flipped over at Palm Beach International Airport. At Cape Canaveral, the third hurricane to hit NASA’s spaceport in just over a month blew out more panels and left more gaping holes in the massive shuttle assembly building.
Among the areas left without power were much of Palm Beach County, population 1.1 million, and – for the second time in three weeks – all of Vero Beach.
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.
President Bush declared a major disaster area in Florida. The hurricanes have prompted the largest relief effort in the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s history, eclipsing responses for the 1994 earthquake in Northridge, Calif., and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, director Michael Brown said.
What happened
Hurricane Jeanne sliced across much of central Florida on Sunday with its girth of 400 miles. The storm, which hit Florida as a Category 3 hurricane, was downgraded to a tropical storm. Jeanne was expected to stay inland, moving into Georgia and then the Carolinas through Tuesday.
Hurricane toll
Jeanne is responsible for at least 1,537 deaths so far: at least 1,500 in Haiti (more than 900 people are missing), 24 in the Dominican Republic, seven in Puerto Rico and six in the United States.
At least 1,728 people have died in the 2004 hurricane season, 113 in the United States.
What happened
Hurricane Jeanne sliced across much of central Florida on Sunday with its girth of 400 miles. The storm, which hit Florida as a Category 3 hurricane, was downgraded to a tropical storm. Jeanne was expected to stay inland, moving into Georgia and then the Carolinas through Tuesday.
Hurricane toll
Jeanne is responsible for at least 1,537 deaths so far: at least 1,500 in Haiti (more than 900 people are missing), 24 in the Dominican Republic, seven in Puerto Rico and six in the United States.
At least 1,728 people have died in the 2004 hurricane season, 113 in the United States.
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