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Sun, 26 September 2004 21:55   |
Anonymous
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MELBOURNE, Florida (CNN) -- Jeanne was downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm Sunday after sweeping across Florida and knocking out power to more than a million customers.
At 2 p.m., Jeanne was centered about 20 miles southeast of Brooksville, Florida, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Maximum sustained winds were near 70 mph and the storm was moving northwest near 10 mph.
Forecasters expect it to either hug the coast and eventually curl east toward Georgia and North Carolina or enter the Gulf of Mexico and turn inland. NHC forecasters did not expect the storm to gather strength before making landfall again, likely on Florida's Panhandle, where it could affect Tallahassee.
Officials urged Gulf Coast residents to make their way to higher ground immediately.
State Community Affairs Secretary Thaddeus Cohen said it would be several hours before initial assessments of damage could be made.
"We still have tropical-storm-force, hurricane-force winds out there, and our focus is on safety," he said.
Hurricane Jeanne made landfall with 120 mph winds just before midnight Saturday near the southern end of Hutchinson Island, 5 miles southeast of Stuart. Hurricane Frances, a Category 2 storm, made landfall near there September 5.
Jeanne was the first major hurricane to make landfall north of West Palm Beach and south of the Savannah River for as long as records have been kept.
Mayco Villafana, a spokesman for Florida Power and Light, the state's largest power utility, said, "The storm is not over, and we have not been able to get out there yet ... to make an assessment of the damage."
The company said about 1.5 million of its customers were without power as of noon Sunday, and Villafana predicted that number would rise. Some areas, power officials said, may be without electricity for as long as three weeks.
Progress Energy Florida, another of the state's large power companies, reported 223,000 customers statewide without power at 11 a.m.
West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel said about a million homes in her city were without electricity. Power companies told her it could be three weeks before power is restored to some neighborhoods.
Power officials urged residents to stay indoors and away from downed power lines until crews can get to the affected areas.
'It just doesn't stop'
Stuart Mayor Jeff Krauskopf, hunkered down in his home, ventured out with other city workers during the two hours of calm as the eye passed directly over his town.
Krauskopf said Stuart is suffering from hurricane fatigue.
"It just doesn't stop," he said. "It's like that song, Frances to the left of me, Ivan to the right, and Jeanne, I'm stuck in the middle with you.
"The howling is hellish," he added.
Stuart's Martin Memorial Hospital North lost half its roof, but the 50 patients inside were taken to a safe area and were not hurt, Krauskopf said. The hospital also was damaged from Hurricane Frances, and had completed interim repairs.
In Martin County, emergency operations officials now believe a car plunged off the causeway connecting Hutchinson Island to the mainland during the height of the storm.
Two callers to the 911 dispatcher reported seeing a car drive off the bridge and fall into the Intracoastal Waterway, but at the time conditions were too dangerous for them to respond. When winds died down as the eye passed, a Coast Guard ship discovered a breach in the guardrail.
National Guard aircraft have been requested for an aerial assessment of the island, Martin County spokesman Jeff Alter said.
The two bridges to Hutchinson Island, the location of Jeanne's initial landfall, are impassable, making it impossible to know how the estimated 200 residents who refused to evacuate fared in the storm, he said.
All county officials left the island Saturday ahead of Jeanne's arrival, warning residents they would be without help, he said.
Millions ignore evacuation orders
Despite the dangers, millions of residents opted to ignore mandatory evacuation orders and stay in their homes.
Officials said far more people left for shelters when Frances hit. (Web sites offer safety, evacuation tips)
Since hurricane information has been recorded, Florida has never been hit by four hurricanes in the same year, according to Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center.
Texas was hit by four hurricanes in 1886, he said.
Jeanne follows hurricanes Charley and Frances, which battered the Florida Peninsula, and Ivan, which pounded the Florida Panhandle though its eye made landfall on the Alabama coast.
Jeanne's worst damage was inflicted in Haiti, where more than 1,300 people are dead and a large number are still missing. (Full story)
CNN's Susan Candiotti, Anderson Cooper, Rob Marciano, Chad Myers, Gary Tuchman and John Zarrella contributed to this report.
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