HUTCHINSON ISLAND, Fla. -Hurricane Jeanne -the latest in a relentless parade of hurricanes to pound Florida -sliced across the state yesterday with howling wind and rain, turning streets into rivers, peeling off roofs and rocketing debris from earlier storms through the air.
At least three people died in the storm, which came ashore in the same area hit by Frances three weeks ago. More than 1.5 million homes and businesses were without power.
The devastating fourth punch to the state in just six weeks was an ordeal no state has endured since 1886, when Texas was the target. And the hurricane season still has two months to go.
The last three weeks have been horrific
said mobile home park owner Joe Stawara. And just when we start to turn the corner this happens.
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 2001 terrorist attacks, Director Michael Brown said.
You're going to have some areas that have been hit once twice and sometimes maybe three times
Brown said. That's very frustrating
I know
for those who live in those communities.
Frances was larger, while Charley and Ivan were more powerful. But Jeanne was bad enough, once again sending the Sunshine State into a state of emergency.
Rain blew sideways, light poles fell and some bridges from the mainland to the Atlantic coast's barrier islands were flooded and impassable. Houses, condominiums and other buildings lost roofs, and a deserted community center in Jensen Beach was destroyed.
A mattress floated through a neighborhood in Vero Beach, where at least a foot of water rushed through some streets.
Gov. Jeb Bush sought to reassure weary Floridians. This will become a memory
he said. This does come to an end
and when it does we can probably use the term 'normal' again.
Seawater submerged the bottom floor of condominiums on Hutchinson Island, where Josh Lumberson rode out the storm. The parking lot was under 5 feet of sand and water, and sand rose to the kitchen cabinets inside first-floor condos. The ocean, once 75 yards away, lapped at the foundation.
It sounded like the whole building was coming down
Lumberson said. You could hear every metal screw coming out of the walls.
As the wind subsided, the clang of metal siding could still be heard on the barrier island.
Jeanne made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane with winds of up to 120 mph just before midnight Saturday at Hutchinson Island, 35 miles north of West Palm Beach. Frances struck in almost the same spot.
Once inland, Jeanne's 400-mile diameter system trudged across the state, passing northeast of Tampa. It then headed toward the Panhandle, where some 80,000 people were still without electricity because of Ivan, which struck 10 days earlier.
Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, described the similar paths of Jeanne and Frances as perhaps unprecedented.
The toll from the latest storm extended as far north as Daytona Beach, where the famous beach was ravaged by erosion, and south to Miami, where one person was electrocuted after touching a downed power line.
Two people died when the SUV they were driving plunged into a lake beside the Sawgrass Expressway south of Boca Raton.
Jeanne's predecessors killed at least 70 people and caused billions of dollars in damage.
In St. Lucie County, north of West Palm Beach, police rescued five families, including a wheelchair-bound couple in their 90s whose mobile home collapsed around them, when the hurricane's eye passed over late Saturday, emergency operations spokeswoman Linette Trabulsy said.
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.
More than 3,000 National Guard troops were also deployed to aid relief efforts.
In Jensen Beach, a waterfront drive washed out by Frances and repaved Wednesday was again missing big chunks of asphalt. Palm trees, coconuts and pieces of lawn furniture littered the road.
But some residents acknowledged it could have been worse. Peirce Braun assessed the mess from the front yard of his bungalow.
It's really not that bad
he said. The worst thing in Florida is to be without the AC.
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.
In Sanford, a city near Orlando surrounded by lakes and rivers, a foot of water flowed down a scenic road that parallels Lake Monroe, and three-foot waves broke over the seawall that separates the lake from the historic downtown area.
State officials said 59,000 people, many with homes already damaged by Frances, rode out Jeanne in shelters.
At least one family will remember Jeanne fondly. An Indiantown woman gave birth at her home during the hurricane with help from 911 operators who offered instructions. The woman and her newborn son were doing well after being transferred by fire rescue personnel to a hospital.
