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HURRICANE/ TROPICAL STORM JEANNE KILLS OVER 1200 6 dead in Florida 2004 update 9-27-04 |
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9-18-04 -
Tropical Storm Jeanne Heads for Bahamas
Storm Blamed for at Least Eight Deaths
By PETER PRENGAMAN, AP
SAMANA, Dominican Republic (Sept. 18, 2004) - A tropical storm once again, Jeanne headed for the Bahamas on Saturday after rampaging through the Dominican Republic. Forecasters said it was too soon to predict if the storm would hit the United States.
Blamed for at least eight deaths, Jeanne had lost strength even as it drove thousands of Dominicans from their homes. But late Friday, a few hours after being downgraded to a tropical depression when its winds dipped below 39 mph, it strengthened again into a tropical storm. The storm stalled over the Dominican Republic after coming ashore Thursday as a hurricane, with winds near 80 mph. It raged through Puerto Rico on Wednesday, dumping up to two feet of rain, flooding hundreds of homes and downing power lines. The storm was on course to hit the Bahamas late Saturday, and Brian Jarvinen at the National Hurricane Center in Miami said Florida wasn't "out of the woods yet." The storm killed five people in the Dominican Republic on Friday, said Juan Luis German, spokesman for the National Emergency Committee. Two people were swept away by rivers; one man was killed by a falling tree; another had a heart attack and couldn't reach the hospital; and a man on a motorcycle died when winds slammed him into a telephone pole. A baby also died Thursday in a landslide. Two people died Wednesday in Puerto Rico, where rain was still falling Saturday morning. Half the island's 4 million residents were without running water for a fourth day, and 70 percent were without electricity. President Bush declared the U.S. territory a disaster zone on Friday, responding to Gov. Sila Calderon's plea for aid. Calderon said the agriculture industry's losses were estimated at $100 million. In the Dominican, thousands were stranded on rooftops of flooded homes in San Pedro de Macoris, where the River Soco burst its banks. Authorities used helicopters and jeeps to rescue the people in the northeastern fishing town, birthplace of baseball star Sammy Sosa.
In Samana, a north-coast Dominican town popular with European tourists, people felt hurricane-force gusts driving horizontal sheets of rain. Jeanne tore off dozens of roofs in the town and brought down some concrete walls. "My house is made of wood so I know it can't hold up to these winds," said Amanda Cibel, 23, who had fled to a shelter in Samana. "It's going to be terrible to go home and find nothing." More than 8,200 people were evacuated and took refuge in shelters set up in schools and churches, officials said. "I've seen strong storms but never like this," said Elizabeth Javier, 12, standing where her family's living room used to be. The storm demolished one wall and the entire roof. At 11 a.m. EDT, Jeanne was near Great Inagua Island in the southeast Bahamas. It was moving north-northwest around 7 mph with maximum sustained winds near 50 mph. A tropical storm warning was in effect for the southeastern Bahamas. Far out at sea, the 11th named storm of a busy Atlantic hurricane season formed. Hurricane Karl posed no immediate threat to land, forecasters said. 09-18-04 14:28 EDT Copyright 2004 The Associated Press.
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Hurricane Jeanne kills more than 100Haiti death toll risingGonaives, Haiti — (09/20/04)-- The death toll has been going up in Haiti, along with the floodwaters brought by Tropical Storm Jeanne.The storm is blamed for at least 109 deaths
there, and officials expect that to rise.
Many on the poor island were forced to climb onto roofs to escape the
high, muddy water. One teen says she, her mom and six siblings spent the
night in a tree. She also recounted seeing neighbors being swept away by
the raging waters.
The mud is ankle-deep outside the mayor's office in Goinaives, where
the city's main hospital is instead being used as a morgue.
Jeanne is now in the open Atlantic, heading away from the U.S.
It was earlier blamed for at least ten deaths in Puerto Rico and the
Dominican Republic. (Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved |
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| September 20th, 2004 - Tropical storm
Jeanne batters Haiti. The storm so far has killed at least 100
people.
Forecasters predict the storm will turn south in the next few days and head back out into the Atlantic. Over the weekend Jeanne left a wake of devastation in the Dominican Republic. The storm battered the island nation causing eleven storm related deaths. More than 30-thousand people had to be evacuated from country villages that had become stranded by the high waters. Jeanne lashed the northern part of the country for two days. And there's yet another hurricane in the central Atlantic. Karl has strengthened to a category four hurricane, but forecasters say if Karl stays on course he'll stay in the open waters of the Atlantic. Karl is the seventh Atlantic hurricane of the season. |
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The death toll across Haiti from the weekend deluges brought by Tropical Storm Jeanne rose to more than 700, with about 600 of them in Gonaives, and officials said they expected to find more dead and estimated tens of thousands of people were homeless. Waterlines up to 10 feet high on Gonaives' buildings marked the worst of the storm that sent water gushing down denuded hills, destroying homes and crops in the Artibonite region that is Haiti's breadbasket. Floodwaters receded, but half of Haiti's third-largest city was still swamped with contaminated water up to two feet deep four days after Jeanne passed. Not a house in the city of 250,000 people escaped damage. The homeless sloshed through the streets carrying belongings on their heads, while people with houses that still had roofs tried to dry scavenged clothes. "We're going to start burying people in mass graves," said Toussaint Kongo-Doudou, a spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti. Some victims were buried Monday. Flies buzzed around bloated corpses piled high at the city's three morgues, where the electricity was off as temperatures reached into the 90s. Only about 30 of the 250 bodies at the morgue of the flood-damaged General Hospital hade been identified, said Dr. Daniel Rubens of the International Red Cross. Many of the dead there were children. "I lost my kids and there's nothing I can do," said Jean Estimable, whose 2-year-old daughter was killed and another of his five children was missing and presumed dead. Dieufort Deslorges, spokesman for the civil protection agency, said he expected the death toll to rise as reports came in from outlying villages and estimated a quarter million Haitians had been made homeless. Rescue workers reported recovering 691 bodies by Tuesday night -- about 600 of them in Gonaives and more than 40 in northern Port-de-Paix, Deslorges said. In addition, at least 51 were recovered in other areas. But Deslorges said there were dozens more dead still unaccounted for,
which would bring the toll past 700. "It appears many were swept
away to the sea, there are bodies still buried in mud and rubble, or
floating in water," he told the AP. Gonaives was blacked-out Tuesday night. Only a handful of buildings were lit and hotels packed with displaced people were in darkness because they had run out of fuel for generators. More than 1,000 people were missing, said Raoul Elysee, head of the Haitian Red Cross, which was trying desperately to find doctors to help. The international aid group CARE said 85 of its 200 workers in Gonaives were unaccounted for. "It's really catastrophic. We're still discovering bodies," said Francoise Gruloos of the U.N. Children's Fund. The aid group Food for the Poor said the main road north from Gonaives was made impassable by the storm -- it was unclear whether from mudslides or debris -- and there were fears that hundreds of possible flood victims may be out of reach. Brazilian and Jordanian troops in the U.N. peacekeeping mission sent to stabilize Haiti after rebels ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February struggled to help the needy as aid workers ferried supplies of water and food to victims. CARE spokesman Rick Perera said the agency had about 660 tons of dry food in Gonaives, including corn-soy blend, dried lentils and cooking oil and was trying to set up distribution points. Police said aid vehicles were being waylaid by mobs on the outskirts of Gonaives. One truck that made it to City Hall in the town center was swarmed by people who began throwing its load of bagged water into the crowd, setting off a melee. The driver finally sped off, bouncing people off the truck. Addressing the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, Haiti's interim president, Boniface Alexandre, pleaded for help. "In the face of this tragedy ... I appeal urgently for the solidarity of the international community so it may once again support the government in the framework of emergency assistance," he said. Several nations were sending aid including $1.8 million from the European Union and $1 million and rescue supplies from Venezuela. The U.S. Embassy announced $60,000 in immediate relief aid Monday, drawing criticism from Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Fla., who called it "a drop in the bucket." Floods are particularly devastating in Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, because it is almost completely deforested, leaving few roots to hold back rushing waters or mudslides. Most of the trees have been chopped down to make charcoal for cooking. Jeanne came four months after devastating floods along Haiti's southern border with the Dominican Republic. Some 1,700 bodies were recovered and 1,600 more were presumed dead. Gonaives also suffered fighting during the February rebellion that led to the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and left an estimated 300 dead. The storm entered the Caribbean last week, killing seven people in Puerto Rico before the hurricane hit the Dominican Republic, killing at least 19, including 12 who drowned Monday in swollen rivers. The overall death toll was 717. On Tuesday, Jeanne was posing no threat to land, about 515 miles east of Great Abaco island in the Bahamas. Also out in the open Atlantic was Hurricane Karl, 990 miles from the
Caribbean's Leeward islands, and Tropical Storm Lisa, which was about
1,005 miles northeast of the Leeward Islands. |
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Wednesday, September 22, 2004
From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Hurricane Jeanne could loop back around, hit southeastern U.S.
Sun-Sentinel September 22, 2004, 5:22 PM EDT
Though it appears headed for the Carolinas or even farther north,
Hurricane Jeanne already is producing pounding waves and dangerous rip
currents along the entire Florida coastline, and particularly in Palm
Beach County, which could see 8- to 10-foot swells by the weekend.
That has prompted the National Weather Service in Miami to issue a high-surf advisory through next Tuesday. Miami-Dade and Broward counties should see 4 to 6 foot waves rough up the surf as the hurricane, which was about 700 miles east of Boca Raton on Wednesday, sends out powerful ripples, forecasters said. "We advise people to stay out of the surf if possible," said meteorologist Tom Warner. "If you must go swimming, swim at guarded beaches only." Otherwise, if Jeanne holds to its forecast track, it would draw within about 400 miles of South Florida on Saturday, far enough that this region would escape feeling any strong winds or rain. Rather, the storm should produce only beautiful sunny weather here over the weekend, Warner said. "On the west side of a hurricane is lots of dry air and sunny conditions," he said. The development came as hundreds of flood victims Tuesday night roamed the streets of Gonaives, Haiti, trying to find shelter after their lives were washed away by torrential rains from Jeanne. The death toll in Haiti has approached 700 from the storm. At 5 p.m. EDT, Jeanne was centered about 500 miles east of Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas. It was moving west-southwest near 5 mph and was expected to turn west. Because Hurricane Jeanne is crawling so slowly, its track and intensity are more difficult to predict, meaning it could strike virtually anywhere along the East Coast. That also means South Florida isn't quite out of the woods yet, said Krissy Williams, meteorologist with the National Hurricane Center in Miami-Dade County. "Especially with a slow-moving storm, everyone from South Florida to the Outer Banks should monitor this storm over the weekend," she said. For now, forecasters are confident that Jeanne will slide around the perimeter of a high-pressure ridge over the Atlantic, taking it on a northerly course. But until Saturday, the system should continue meandering to the west, generally toward the Florida coastline. It also was expected to weaken slightly after five days, Williams said. Jeanne might draw close enough to the central and northern Bahamas that hurricane watches and warnings might need to be posted, forecasters said. Those islands also are seeing large swells. The death toll across Haiti from the weekend deluges brought by Tropical Storm Jeanne rose to 691, with 600 of them in Gonaives, and officials said they expected to find more dead and estimated tens of thousands were homeless, The Associated Press reported on Tuesday. Waterlines up to 10 feet high on Gonaives' buildings marked the worst of the storm that sent water gushing down hills, destroying homes and crops in the Artibonite region that is Haiti's breadbasket. Floodwaters receded, but half of Haiti's third-largest city was still swamped with contaminated water up to two feet deep four days after Jeanne passed. Not a house in the city of 250,000 people escaped damage. The homeless sloshed through the streets carrying belongings on their heads, while people with houses that still had roofs tried to dry scavenged clothes. One 9-month-old baby slept peacefully in his mother's arms, oblivious to the ruins around him. Margaret Jeunne held him tightly as she waded through shin-high water filled with the carcasses of dead animals to find him a place to sleep. "I'm going through a lot of misery," said the 37-year-old mother, her eyes dazed. "Look how late it is, and I'm here walking through this water." "We're going to start burying people in mass graves," said Toussaint Kongo-Doudou, a spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti. Some victims were buried Monday. Blood swirled in knee-deep floodwaters as workers stacked bodies outside the hospital morgue Tuesday. Only about 30 of the 250 bodies at the morgue of the flood-damaged General Hospital had been identified, said Dr. Daniel Rubens of the International Red Cross. Many of the dead there were children. George Pelecier, 47, said he spent Monday night at a friend's house with more than 50 other people but was looking for other options Tuesday night. He said he lost his wife and three children, ages 5 to 15, Saturday morning when the waters rushed through his street, Ruelle Magloire, on the way to the sea. He was away trying to find work when he heard the news. It took him two days to arrive at the scene because of high waters that carried vehicles, dead animals and debris. "I feel desperate," he said. "The only hope I have now is God because this was the deed of God and not of humans." He said the Red Cross took the bodies away to a morgue at the hospital. His loved ones might be buried by now, he said, but he wasn't sure. "Usually we have a wake, a funeral and a coffin," he said. "But we weren't ready for this, and I don't have the money. The clothes on my back are all I have left." Dieufort Deslorges, spokesman for the civil protection agency, said he expected the death toll to rise as reports came in from outlying villages and estimated a quarter million Haitians had been made homeless. More than 1,000 people were missing, said Raoul Elysee, head of the Haitian Red Cross, which was trying to find doctors to help. The international aid group CARE said 85 of its 200 workers in Gonaives were unaccounted for. "It's really catastrophic. We're still discovering bodies," said Francoise Gruloos of the U.N. Children's Fund. The aid group Food for the Poor, which has headquarters in Delray Beach, said the main road north from Gonaives was made impassable by the storm -- it was unknown whether from mudslides or debris -- and there were fears that hundreds of flood victims may be out of reach. The Catholic Diocese of Gonaives, where 200 people were housed, was filled to capacity, and some were being turned away. Bishop Yves Marie Pean said people were desperate for food, water, clothes and toiletries. The city remained without power, and by 9 p.m. the streets were dark. "If we're not careful, several thousands will die of starvation," said the bishop, who lost one of his priests in the disaster -- he thinks because of a heart attack. "We have nothing. About 80 to 90 percent of the houses are under water." Brazilian and Jordanian troops in the U.N. peacekeeping mission sent to stabilize Haiti after rebels ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February struggled to help the needy as aid workers ferried supplies of water and food to victims. CARE spokesman Rick Perera said the agency had about 660 tons of dry food in Gonaives, including corn-soy blend, dried lentils and cooking oil and was trying to set up distribution points. Police said aid vehicles were being waylaid by mobs on the outskirts of Gonaives. One truck that made it to City Hall in the town center was swarmed by people who began throwing its load of bagged water into the crowd, setting off a melee. The driver finally sped off, bouncing people off the truck. Addressing the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, Haiti's interim president, Boniface Alexandre, pleaded for help. "In the face of this tragedy ... I appeal urgently for the solidarity of the international community so it may once again support the government in the framework of emergency assistance," he said. Several nations were sending aid, including $1.8 million from the European Union and $1 million and rescue supplies from Venezuela. The U.S. Embassy announced $60,000 in relief aid Monday, drawing criticism from Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Fla., who called it "a drop in the bucket." Floods are devastating in Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, because it is almost completely deforested, leaving few roots to hold back rushing waters or mudslides. Most of the trees have been chopped down to make charcoal for cooking. Jeanne came four months after devastating floods along Haiti's border with the Dominican Republic. About 1,700 bodies were recovered and 1,600 more were presumed dead. Gonaives also suffered fighting during the February rebellion that led to the ouster of Aristide and left an estimated 300 dead. The storm entered the Caribbean last week, killing seven people in Puerto Rico before hitting the Dominican Republic, killing 19, including 12 who drowned Monday in swollen rivers. The overall death toll is 717. Information from The Associated Press was used to supplement this report. Alva James-Johnson can be reached at ajjohnson@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4523. Copyright © 2004, South Florida Sun-Sentinel |
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Death Toll From Haiti Floods Tops 1,070
By AMY BRACKEN, AP
GONAIVES, Haiti (Sept. 23) - Trucks dumped scores of bodies into a mass grave in this flood-ravaged city still littered with corpses, as officials said the death toll from Tropical Storm Jeanne rose to more than 1,070 and could double again. There was no funeral ceremony when the bodies were dumped into a 14-foot-deep hole at sunset Wednesday. Dozens of bystanders shrieked, held their noses against the stench and demanded officials collect bodies in nearby waterlogged fields.
The confirmed death toll rose to 1,072, with 1,013 bodies recovered in Gonaives alone, according to Dieufort Deslorges, spokesman for the government's civil protection agency. He said the number of people missing in the floods rose to 1,250. Only a couple dozen bodies have been identified, and nobody was taking count at the site of the mass grave. ''We're demanding they come and take the bodies from our fields. Dogs are eating them,'' said bystander Jean Lebrun, listing demands made by residents of in the neighborhood whose opposition to mass graves had delayed burials.
''We can only drink the water people died in,'' the 35-year-old farmer said, citing a lack of potable water in this city of 250,000, with parts still knee-deep in water five days after the storm's passage. Hurricane experts said Wednesday that Jeanne - now over the open Atlantic as a hurricane - could loop around and head toward the Bahamas then threaten the storm-weary southeastern United States as early as this weekend. It was too soon to tell where or if Jeanne would hit, but the National Hurricane Center in Miami warned people in the northwest and central Bahamas and southeastern U.S. coast to beware of dangerous surf kicked up by Jeanne in coming days. Jeanne's rain-laden system proved deadly in Haiti, where more than 98 percent of the land is deforested and torrents of water and mudslides smashed down denuded hills and into the city, destroying homes and crops. Floodwater lines on buildings went up to 10 feet high. The disaster follows devastating floods in May, along the Haiti-Dominican Republic border, which left official tolls of 1,191 dead and 1,484 missing in Haiti and 395 dead and 274 missing on the Dominican side. The countries share the island of Hispaniola. Survivors in Haiti's third largest city were hungry, thirsty, and increasingly desperate. U.N. peacekeepers fired into the air Wednesday to keep a crowd at bay as aid workers handed out loaves of bread - the first food in days for some. Aid agencies have dry food stocked in Gonaives, but few have the means to cook. Food for the Poor, based in Deerfield, Fla., said its truckloads of relief were unable to reach Gonaives on Wednesday because roads were washed away and blocked by mudslides. Troops from the Brazilian-led U.N. peacekeeping forcing were ferrying in some supplies by helicopter. ''The situation is not getting better because people have been without food or water for three or four days,'' said Hans Havik, of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Deslorges said there still were dozens of unrecovered bodies. ''There are bodies in the water, in the mud, in collapsed houses and floating in houses that were absolutely covered by the floods.'' Last week, Jeanne also killed seven people in Puerto Rico and at least 19 in Dominican Republic. The overall death toll for the Caribbean was at least 1,098. At the grave in Gonaives, Raoul Elysee of the Haitian Red Cross said between 100 and 200 were buried and the rest would be buried Thursday. The decomposing bodies have officials fearful of health risks. Havik said the contamination of water sources and flooding of latrines could cause an outbreak of waterborne diseases. Martine Vice-Aimee, an 18-year-old mother of two whose home was destroyed, said people already were getting ill. ''People are getting sick from the water, they're walking in it, their skin is getting itchy and rashes. The water they're drinking is giving them stomach aches.'' She stood in a long line but didn't know what she was waiting for outside Gonaives' Roman Catholic cathedral, where hours earlier aid workers had handed out the bread. She said she had been afraid to fight her way through the crowd. Havik's federation made a worldwide appeal Wednesday for $3.3 million to fund relief operations to 40,000 Haitian victims, and several nations were sending aid. Many nations are sending help, with the biggest contributions from the European Union and Venezuela. At 5 p.m., Jeanne was centered about 500 miles east of the Bahamian island of Great Abaco. It was moving west-southwest and was expected to strengthen and turn toward the west. Hurricane-force winds extended 45 miles and tropical-storm force winds out to 140 miles. Also out in the open Atlantic, Tropical Storm
Lisa was forecast to take a swing northward in the next five days,
diverting it from a track toward the Leeward Islands. Forecasters said
Hurricane Karl was expected to keep moving away from North America over
the Atlantic. |
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| Florida in path of Hurricane Jeanne Storm would be fourth to hit Sunshine State this season Friday, September 24, 2004 Posted: 6:24 PM EDT (2224 GMT) Tom Mignogna boards up windows Friday in Satellite Beach as Hurricane Jeanne approaches Florida. # Latitude: 26.4 north # Longitude: 73.5 west # Top sustained winds: 100 mph Source: National Hurricane Center MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Florida Gov. Jeb Bush declared a state of emergency Friday as the state prepared for the arrival of Jeanne, potentially the fourth hurricane to strike the Sunshine State this year. Jeanne, which meandered for several days after inundating the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Haiti with rain as a tropical storm last week, is now on track to hit the Florida coast by Sunday, weather forecasters said. Projections show the Category 2 storm cutting through the northern Bahamas on Saturday and then heading toward Florida, possibly hitting the coast Sunday morning. As of 5 p.m. Friday ET, the center of the hurricane was 225 miles (360 kilometers) east of Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas, where a hurricane warning is in effect, the National Hurricane Center said. That position put the eye of the storm 400 miles (645 kilometers) east of the Florida coast. The storm was moving west near 12 mph (19 kph), the center said. Jeanne's top sustained winds held at 100 mph (160 kph), and hurricane-force winds extended outward up to 45 miles (75 kilometers) from the center. Winds of tropical storm force extended outward up to 150 miles (240 kilometers). The center said wind speed may increase during the next 24 hours. A hurricane warning was issued at 5 p.m. for the Florida coast from Florida City, south of Miami, to St. Augustine. A hurricane watch was issued for north of St. Augustine to Altamaha Sound, Georgia. Jeanne has left significant destruction in its wake. More than 1,100 Haitians were killed by the storm and the flooding that resulted. About 1,250 people still are missing there, six days after the storm hit, and the death toll is expected to rise as relief efforts continue. (Full story) International relief workers trying to distribute supplies Friday were mobbed by desperate people, many of whom said they had not eaten since their homes were destroyed last weekend, when Jeanne hit. Jeanne left more than 250,000 people homeless in Haiti's northwest province, which includes the port of Gonaives. The days since have been a desperate time of survival. Without ceremony, mass graves were being filled with both human and animal carcasses. Survivors set up camp on rooftops surrounded by contaminated waters and compromised food supplies. Florida braces again Jeanne follows hurricanes Charley and Frances, which hit the Florida Peninsula, and Ivan, which pounded the Panhandle, even though its eye made landfall on the Alabama coast. Bush warned the state to take Jeanne seriously. Calling it a "brutal" storm, he urged people to take in their neighbors as a way to help people move away from the coastline. "Yes, we are tired and our resources are stretched," he said, adding that the state has the additional complication of few available hotel rooms because so many are filled with relief workers. The National Hurricane Center's prediction of the most likely path has the storm making landfall between Fort Pierce and Melbourne, Florida, then hugging the coastline from Florida to the Carolinas. "I know this has become quite a challenge for people," the governor said. "On the east coast, there have been evacuation orders now on a regular basis, and maybe people are saying, 'enough of this. I'm gonna ride this one out.' "These storms are brutal in terms of the wind force, and this storm has the potential of being similar to Ivan in terms of the strength of the winds and a powerful force. I know people are frustrated. I know they're tired of this and, trust me, your governor is as well, but we should heed the warnings of the experts as it relates to evacuating" if the needs arise. The string of hurricanes has pummeled Florida's tourism industry, with many oceanfront resorts damaged and some highways washed out. The hurricane center noted that sundown Friday until sundown Saturday will be Yom Kippur, a solemn Jewish holiday. Observant Jews in the watch and warning areas "will not be listening to radios or watching TV ... and may not be aware of the hurricane situation," the center said in a statement posted on its Web site. Residual problems remain Even as Florida prepares for Jeanne, electricity has not been completely restored from the previous storms. Bush said relief efforts have provided more than 7.4 million meals and 18 million pounds of ice. Schools are starting to open and government officials were working with power companies to get all power restored. Utility companies had restored power to 78 percent of homes in the Panhandle, he said. As of Thursday evening, about 68,000 customers were without electricity in Escambia County, and about 25,000 had no power in Santa Rosa County. Some hurricane-related power outages also continue in Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina. Ivan dumps heavy rains Meanwhile, Ivan weakened to a tropical depression as it moved inland along the southwestern Louisiana and upper Texas coasts. Parts of southwestern Louisiana received as much as 8 inches of rain, and Jefferson County, Texas, received between 3 and 3.5 inches in a four-hour period, The Associated Press reported. As of 5 p.m. ET, Ivan was between Huntsville and Lufkin, about 120 miles north of Houston, Texas. The storm had stalled, the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center in Camp Springs, Maryland, said. Ivan slammed ashore as a hurricane a week ago on the Alabama coast, spreading havoc from the Gulf Coast into North Carolina. Over the next few days, its remnants curled back into the Gulf of Mexico, where they regrouped and regained tropical storm strength late Wednesday. CNN's Karl Penhaul contributed to this report. Copyright 2004 CNN. All rights reserved. |
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| Jeanne slashes into weary Florida By Jeff Zeleny Tribune national correspondent Published September 26, 2004, 11:23 AM CDT ORLANDO -- Hurricane Jeanne made its way across Florida's central corridor on Sunday as the storm's eye whirled from the Atlantic Ocean toward the Tampa Bay, leaving a trail of destruction and threatening floods as the region hunkered down for a daylong assault. At least 1.2 million people from Palm Beach to Cape Canaveral to Orlando were without power and utility officials said many residents could be without electricity for up to three weeks. No deaths were immediately confirmed, but torrential rains were preventing search and rescue crews from reaching the hardest-hit regions. The hurricane made landfall along Hutchinson Island near the central Atlantic coastal town of Stuart, the National Hurricane Center reported, before the 400-mile diameter storm pushed through the state's mid-section and along the East Coast. In downtown Orlando, rain whipped sideways for hours with sustained winds of more than 75 m.p.h. and a curfew remained in effect until early evening. Elsewhere, sections of road were washed out by pounding waves as Jeanne came ashore just miles from where Hurricane Frances struck three weeks earlier. At the Ocean Breeze trailer park in Jensen Beach, roofs of mobile homes were peeled back like the lids of sardine cans. Computer printers, hair dryers and propane canisters littered the road. Metal sidings clanged in the wind. Catholic Mass was canceled as emergency management officials warned residents to stay indoors. More than 2 million people had been ordered to evacuate Saturday and even more were added to the list on Sunday, but authorities feared too many people had failed to heed the warning because of storm fatigue. Not since Texas was struck by four hurricanes in 1886 has a state endured such a menacing season. First, Charley struck southwestern Florida on Aug. 13, followed by Frances' blow to the eastern and central regions on Sept. 5 and then Ivan, which devastated the Panhandle on Sept. 16. The storms killed 70 people across the state and caused at least $50 billion in damages. Nearly 3,000 Florida National Guard troops – many of whom recently back from a tour in Iraq – were deployed throughout the state. Gov. Jeb Bush declared a state of emergency, a declaration that was repeated by his brother, President Bush, who aides said was monitoring the latest storm damage from his ranch in central Texas. Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, said the similar paths of Jeanne and Frances were remarkable. Mayfield said it was the "first time ever that we know of" that two hurricanes landed so close in place and time. Jeanne made a turn to the north over central Florida and was expected to stay inland over Georgia and the Carolinas through Tuesday. It had weakened to a Category 2 storm with 110-mph top sustained winds, but its wide swath covered most of the central part of the Florida Peninsula, including Tampa and Orlando. Forecasters expected rainfall totals of 5 to 10 inches, raising major concerns of flooding in an area already saturated from the previous hurricanes. Rivers, lakes and canals were at their brink Sunday, officials said, as Jeanne's rings of rain crawled slowly across the state. Throughout the weekend, authorities grew concerned when roads did not become clogged with traffic and shelters did not fill. It was a sign, they feared, that people had become complacent about Mother Nature's relentless assault of powerful hurricanes. "My guess is that there may have been some weariness," Gov. Jeb Bush told reporters at a briefing in Tallahassee. "A lot of people have made the wrong choice." In conversations with residents from Ft. Lauderdale to Palm Beach to Orlando on Saturday, as people waited in line at the few service stations that still had gasoline or searched for batteries in discount stores, it was clear that the back-to-back storms had taken a toll on the state's collective psyche. "What we are seeing is similar to post-traumatic stress disorder, maybe not quite that intense, but people are numb, they are irritable, depressed," said Deborah Saland, a psychologist and social worker in Ft. Lauderdale. "This time, it is more like people are just resigned to whatever happens." Still, Jeanne may be more dangerous than the previous hurricanes, combining the speed of Charley and the fury of Ivan. It has killed an estimated 1,500 people in Haiti. And on Saturday it lashed the northern Bahamas with fierce winds and torrential rains, toppling trees and inundating neighborhoods. Tribune wire services contributed to this report. Copyright © 2004, Chicago Tribune |
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More Than 1.7 Mln Without Power in Fla. After Jeanne
Mon Sep 27, 2004 09:33 AM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hurricane Jeanne, the fourth hurricane to hit Florida in six weeks, left more than 2.5 million Florida homes and businesses without electricity since the storm hit on Sept. 25, local utilities said on Monday. The fast work of the region's power companies, however, has cut the total outages to about 1.7 million by early Monday. More than 1 million FPL customers were still without power Monday morning, down from nearly 2 million that were left in the dark over the weekend. FPL Group Inc. of Juno Beach, Florida, serves more than 3.9 million customers in southern Florida and the Atlantic Coast. Progress Florida Power, a unit of North Carolina-based Progress Energy Inc., reported more than 600,000 customers still without electricity, down from the more than 700,000. Jeanne, downgraded to a Tropical Storm with 50 mile-per- hour winds, was pummeling southern Georgia, where it has already left some 20,000 of Georgia Power's 1.9 million customers without service. A spokeswoman at the Southern Co. unit said Monday morning the utility expected the number of outages to grow as the storm crosses its Georgia service territory on a forecast track toward the Carolinas. The U.S. National Hurricane Center forecast Jeanne would leave
Georgia early Tuesday, cross the Carolinas and return to the Atlantic
Ocean near the North Carolina-Virginia border early Wednesday morning.
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