Fourth Hurricane Ravages Florida

MIAMI, Florida, September 27, 2004 (ENS) - At least six people lost their lives as Hurricane Jeanne whipped Florida's Atlantic coast Sunday in the same area hit three weeks ago by Hurricane Frances. Jeanne is now downgraded to a tropical storm blowing across east across the Florida panhandle at about 50 miles per hour, according to the National Hurricane Center. Last week Jeanne slammed Haiti, leaving at least 1,500 people dead.

Jeanne made landfall at Hutchinson Island, near Port St. Lucie late Saturday night as a Category 3 hurricane with winds up to 120 mph. Up to 10 inches of rain fell and Jeanne tore roofs off of houses, toppled trees and downed power lines, the fourth hurricane to batter Florida in the last six weeks.

NOAA hurricane researchers flew into the eyewall of Hurricane Jeanne to take photos from inside the hurricane. (Photo courtesy NOAA)

Governor Jeb Bush was at the Indian River County emergency operations center Sunday near the center of the storm.

Ahead of the storm, some two million people were ordered by state officials to evacuate coastal areas. The American Red Cross sheltered more than 35,000 people in 136 refuges on Saturday night.

Coastal residents were ordered to boil tap water before drinking it to avoid pollutants, and dusk to dawn curfews were imposed in storm-stricken areas to keep people away from downed powelines and control looting.

Florida Big Bend and Gulf coast residents are experiencing tropical storm force winds, heavy rains, flooding and isolated tornadoes Sunday. Tornadoes are still possible across central and northern Florida and southeastern Georgia.

Jeanne is now crossing the Florida panhandle, where 70,000 homes and businesses are still without power because of Hurricane Ivan’s blow to the area a week and a half ago.

Remains of a house in Pensacola, Florida hit by Hurricane Ivan and now in the path of Hurricane Jeanne (Photo by Andrea Booher courtesy FEMA)

Two nuclear power plants - St. Lucie and Turkey Point - declared emergencies and conducted plant shutdowns on Friday in preparation for the hurricane. The Crystal River nuclear power plant remained in operation.

On Saturday, St. Lucie lost off-site power to both units due to the hurricane, the operator, Florida Power & Light reported. At the time, both units were cooling down to meet shutdown conditions. All four emergency diesels, two per unit, started and properly loaded. Both units are stable in natural circulation cooling. Efforts continue to place both units on shutdown cooling. St. Lucie twice lost its link to the Emergency Response Data System on Saturday, the operator reports.

This morning all emergencies at the nuclear plants have been discontinued.

The storm is expected to make a gradual turn toward the north early this morning, and Jeanne should move into southern Georgia. Tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 175 miles from the center.

The National Hurricane Center warns that storm surge flooding of two to four feet above normal tide levels is possible along the Florida Gulf coast and in storm warning areas on the Atlantic coast from Flagler Beach, Florida to South Santee River, South Carolina.

The Coast Guard reopened Port Everglades and the Port of Miami on Sunday, but the ports of Palm Beach, Canaveral, Fernandina, Jacksonville, Tampa, St. Petersburg and Manatee remain closed due to ongoing severe weather conditions.

FEMA Urban Search & Rescue structural engineers check a Pensacola building for structural integrity following hurricane Ivan. (Photo by Andrea Booher courtesy FEMA)

Disaster response workers from 25 states are in Florida assisting Florida's own emergency management crews. More than 3,000 National Guard troops were deployed to aid relief efforts.

Several counties, including Palm Beach and St. Lucie - two of the most devastated - planned to open aid distribution sites Monday morning, if water and ice supplies are delivered as scheduled by federal officials.

This unprecedented fourth hurricane follows the major disasters declared for the state on August 13 for Tropical Storm Bonnie and Hurricane Charley, September 4 through 6 for Hurricane Frances and September 16 for Hurricane Ivan.

About one out of every five Florida homes has been damaged by a hurricane so far this year, according to the Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.).

The insurance industry likely will pay out more than the $15 billion in insurance claims which resulted from Hurricane Andrew in 1992, the I.I.I. reported.

The I.I.I. expects the total number of claims will exceed one million, surpassing the 700,000 claims filed for Hurricane Andrew and setting a new record for the number of claims in such a short span of time.

The I.I.I. stressed that while the insurance industry has sufficient financial resources to pay the claims, the historic one-two-three punch of Hurricanes Ivan, Frances and Charley will make the claims handling process in Florida more difficult

“Ivan, Charley and Frances together do not pose a solvency-threatening event to the industry,” said Robert Hartwig, chief economist of the I.I.I last week before Hurricane Jeanne. But, he said, the "unprecedented challenges created by the multiple hurricanes understandably will strain resources and cause some delays that would not normally occur."

About 15,000 insurance company claims adjusters from across the United States and Canada are now in Florida to speed the claims settlement process. Additional adjusters are in Alabama and other affected areas.

Hartwig said that adjusters necessarily will be prioritizing their visits by severity of damage, calling at the most seriously damaged properties first and getting to less damaged locations later.

Governor Bush thanked the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for providing $500 million in hurricane disaster assistance for producers of citrus, fruits and vegetables and nursery crops for Hurricanes Charley and Frances. The USDA will make additional aid for counties impacted by Ivan available once the damage has been assessed.

Map in the American Red Cross Command Center for Florida Hurricane Response showing the path of Hurricane Jeanne as it moves across Florida north to Georgia. (Photo by Michael Rieger courtesy FEMA)

“We are now in the process of determining agricultural damages from Hurricane Ivan in Florida and other states, as well as damages to agricultural production beyond citrus, fruits and vegetables and nursery operations from Hurricanes Frances and Charley," the governor said.

Lt. Governor Toni Jennings thanked representatives from more than 20 disaster relief organizations and faith-based groups for their contributions to Florida’s hurricane relief effort. Over the past six weeks, more than 85,000 community and faith-based volunteers have logged 1.5 million hours toward the relief effort, making Florida’s volunteer and donation response the largest volunteer response in U.S. history for a natural disaster.

Since Hurricane Charley first hit, Florida’s community and faith-based groups have provided more than 2.4 million gallons of water, 7.9 million pounds of ice and have served 9.2 million meals to the victims of the hurricanes.

The Florida Hurricane Disaster Relief Fund, managed by the Volunteer Florida Foundation, now totals nearly $12 million in tax-deductible contributions from corporations and individuals both nationally and internationally.