Hurricane Frances Blows Off, Ivan Threatens Florida

MIAMI, Florida, September 7, 2004 (ENS) - Battered by two hurricanes in three weeks, weary Florida residents are eyeing a third storm forming out in the Atlantic Ocean and blowing west.

As Florida mops up after Frances and the more devastating winds of Charley, Hurricane Ivan, a Category 4 storm, is heading across the Atlantic and could hit the state a third time by next weekend.

Today, Ivan has caused a hurricane warning to be declared for the Caribbean islands of Barbados, St Vincent, The Grenadines, Tobago and Grenada.

Hurricane Frances is now a tropical depression moving slowly across Georgia, but on Sunday and Monday slow-moving Frances pounded central, southern and eastern Florida for at least 24 hours, claiming four lives.

The coach of the Florida State University football team, Bobby Bowden, lost his 15 year old grandson Bowden Madden and his daughter's ex-husband John Allen Madden when they were killed Sunday in a traffic accident on a slippery road, near the state capital Tallahassee.

In Gainesville, Alachua County, a man died when he lost control of his car and hit a tree, and a woman was killed when an oak tree fell onto the living room of her mobile home.

Hurricane Frances crawled across Florida on Sunday, producing hour after hour of heavy rains. This image of Frances was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on NASA’s Aqua satellite. (Photo courtesy NASA)

After crossing the peninsula Sunday and moving into the Gulf of Mexico, Tropical Storm Frances made landfall on Monday for the second time about 20 miles south of Tallahassee in the Florida Panhandle. Bands of high winds and heavy rains are still blowing across the northern part of the state.

At least 47 of Florida's 67 counties issued either mandatory or voluntary evacuation orders in response to Hurricane Frances. As of Monday night, 254 regular and 71 special needs shelters were open statewide, and some 67,000 people were making use of them.

The Red Cross had 108,000 people in its emergency shelters Sunday and mobilized 7,000 volunteers for the largest disaster response in its history.

Nearly 2.8 million people were ordered to evacuate their homes in eastern Florida as Hurricane Frances approached. By Monday morning, the evacuation order was lifted in Miami-Dade County and across the state.

Florida Lt. Governor Toni Jennings, Department of Community Affairs Secretary Thaddeus Cohen and state emergency management officials urged Florida residents who have evacuated to remain in safe shelters and allow emergency management crews to clear the areas hit by Hurricane Frances. Residents will be notified when it is safe to return by means of radio and TV broadcasts.

Osceola, Florida satellite dish smashed (Photo courtesy Weatherbug.blogs)

The Port of Miami and Miami International Airport reopened on Monday, but as evacuees return home, they are finding their air conditioners and refrigerators are not working.

Power to some six million residents across the state was knocked out by the storm. Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) Monday announced that barring stormy weather, it expects to restore power to essentially all customers in Miami-Dade, Hendry, Lee and Collier counties by midnight Thursday and to Broward by midnight Friday. The company also announced it expects to have restoration target dates for the harder hit areas by Thursday.

FPL has restored power to 1.5 million of the unprecedented 2.8 million customers knocked out by Frances during Labor Day weekend. The two nuclear power plants operated by FPL - St. Lucie and Turkey Point - have lifted their emergency declarations and are operating at full power.

But the company still faces a massive restoration job in virtually every section of its 27,000 square mile service territory covering more than 50 percent of Florida.

Frances came on the heels of Hurricane Charley that three weeks ago, disrupted electric service to 874,000 customers. The same men and women who are now restoring power, worked 16 hour days in a restoration effort that lasted 13 straight days to recover from Charley, and FPL says the back-to-back storms have "severely stretched the company’s resources."

"The majority of customers currently without power should prepare for extended electrical service outages," the company says, because the electrical infrastructure is damagedin virtually all parts of its service area.

Thousands of people from out-of-state joining the FPL power restoration team began their journey from the Georgia-Florida border Monday, but their trip was hampered by thousands of Florida residents returning home.

As emergency crews begin cleanup operations across south and central Florida in the wake of Hurricane Frances, a fuel shortage is hampering recovery efforts.

Florida officials and the Federal Emergency Management Agency say they have a statewide plan to ensure fuel is available for recovery workers and affected communities.

Roads have been blocked as evacuees fled, and now are trying to return to their homes. Fuel is in short supply. (Photo by Mark Wolfe courtesy FEMA)

On an average day, consumers in Florida use 26.5 million gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel.

More than 125 million gallons of fuel will be delivered to the state over the next 48 hours as tankers enter the reopened ports. Over the last 24 hours at Port Everglades, more than 6.5 million gallons of fuel has been distributed to tanker trucks.

Governor Jeb Bush Sunday signed an Executive Order directing the DEP to coordinate fuel replenishment operations and ensure that supplies reach retailers across the state for the public. To accelerate recovery operations, state and federal officials are securing supplies of fuel for first responders, emergency managers and cleanup crews as a priority.

The Executive Order allows companies to share information with DEP, without violating anti-trust laws, and ensure fuel is supplied to retail gas stations along major corridors and metropolitan areas.

The seven day order is allowing a free flow of communication with the six largest fuel suppliers to accelerate the refueling of retail gas stations in the priority counties of St. Lucie, Martin, Indian River, Brevard, Polk, Volusia and Palm Beach.

“By coordinating communications and directing fuel delivery to impacted areas, we are ensuring an adequate supply of fuel and accelerating recovery so that citizens can return to their homes,” said Castille. “Establishing a thoughtful process between fuel companies will make certain that there is no need for rationing and no area without fuel.”

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, working with the Florida DEP, has determined that shortages of diesel fuel and gasoline require a waiver of certain fuel requirements under the Clean Air Act. The EPA is temporarily allowing regulated parties to supply motor vehicle diesel fuel exceeding the sulfur content standard for highway use under the Clean Air Act.

Trees are down in Brevard County (Photo courtesy Weatherbug.blog)

In addition, Hillsborough, Pinellas, Broward, Dade, Duval and Palm Beach counties, which are required to sell gasoline meeting a strict vapor standard during the May to September high ozone season, may sell non-compliant gasoline until midnight tonight, the EPA said. Retail outlets or wholesale consumers who receive the non-compliant high sulfur fuels may continue selling it or dispensing it until their supplies are depleted.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has announced that high-sulfur diesel fuel, used in off-road vehicles and usually not taxed, must be taxed as fuel designated for highway use. But the IRS said it would not assert the excise tax penalty on dyed diesel fuel that wholesale dealers deliver or sell in Florida for highway use because of shortages of clear diesel fuel caused by Hurricanes Charley and Frances. Wholesale dealers should call, toll-free, 1-866-699-4096 for instructions on the proper method for reporting and paying this tax.

Dyed diesel fuel is not taxed, because it is sold for uses exempt from excise tax, such as to farmers for farming purposes and to local governments for buses.

Hurricane Charley, which blew across western Florida on August 13 is still very much a reality for thousands of people whose homes and businesses were smashed by the powerful storm. All of Florida’s 67 counties and affected local governments are eligible to apply for federal funds to pay for debris removal and emergency services related to Charley, including requested emergency work undertaken by the federal government, for the first 72 hours following President Bush's disaster declaration, signed on August 13.