Frances became a tropical storm today as its eye moved slowly over land to Florida’s Gulf Coast and storm-weary residents of South Florida and the Treasure Coast ended another day of strong winds, heavy rain, flooding and damage.
With the eastern end of the storm yet to reach land, Floridians from Miami on up the east coast had remained huddled in boarded-up homes and shelters for a second day, many in humid, stuffy buildings because power has been knocked out to an estimated 4 million people around the state.
This is affecting the entire peninsula today, either tropical storm-force or hurricane-force winds. And then tomorrow, it will be up in the Panhandle, and then moving up into Georgia and Alabama after that,” National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield said.
Frances was expected to remain over the state for most of the day, dumping as much as 11 inches of rain along the east coast. At 5 p.m., it was about 20 miles east of Tampa with maximum winds of 70 mph, but it was expected to strengthen back into a hurricane as it moved into the Gulf of Mexico.
I wish somebody’d get out there and push it — get it over with,” said 72-year-old Nedra Smith, who waited out the storm in the lobby of a Palm Bay hotel.
Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties bore the brunt of the hurricane, although bands of gusty squalls — or worse — slammed residents for 430 miles along the coast from the Keys to Jacksonville.
Initial damage reports included sunken boats, torn-up roofs, downed trees, broken windows, knocked-down signs, some flooding and more. But it appeared South Florida escaped the catastropic destruction that Hurricane Charley recently wreaked on Southwest Florida.
I didn’t think it would get this bad,” Carline Cadet said as she ventured through her West Palm Beach neighborhood in rain gear. The shutters were flapping in the wind so hard all night. It was crazy loud.”
A sinkhole about 30 feet by 40 feet by 12 feet — and growing — was reported on the edge of the northbound lanes of Interstate 95 just south of Forest Hill Boulevard. Engineers were going to the scene to examine it.
“We’re trying to discourage people from driving north on I-95 right now,” said Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Roger Reyes.
A hurricane warning has been issued for the Gulf Coast of Florida from Anna Maria Island to Destin. A hurricane warning from Jupiter to Flagler Beach was downgraded to a tropical storm warning at 5 p.m..
Broward and Miami-Dade counties had all warnings lifted at 5 p.m. All of South Florida continued to be whipped by wind and rain until late afternoon, when the weather began to improve.
The center of the eye made landfall around 1 a.m. near Sewall’s Point, just east of Stuart on the Treasure Coast., and the western portion of the eyewall has already moved well inland over portions of Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties.
The National Hurricane Center said one gust was clocked at 124 mph at Port Canaveral. Unofficial National Weather Service hourly figures show West Palm Beach had maximum sustained winds of 54 mph with gusts to 82, Fort Lauderdale had a maximum of 37 mph with gusts to 51 and Miami had a maximum of 30 with gusts to 48.
Gov. Jeb Bush urged evacuated residents not to rush back to their homes and businesses, warning them of hazards such as drownings in standing water, electrocutions from downed power lines and other dangers.
`This will be a quick response. Don’t go back to your home if you’re in a shelter or safe area,” Bush said. You and your family are more valuable than your valuables.”
Gov. Bush arrived in Palm Beach County this afternoon by plane, joining state emergency officials and federal disaster authorities in surveying the damage. He said a special session of the Legislature is a certainty before year’s end to deal with the financial consequences to the state’s budget from Hurricanes Charles and Frances.
`This is a dynamic state, economically,” Bush said. We will rebound.”
Disaster recovery teams are waiting for the storm to diminish before beginning their damage assessments and recovery efforts.
Craig Fugate, chief of the state Division of Emergency Management, said officials would not wait for blue skies” to begin responding, but crews would not put themselves in harm’s way.
Where we’re not getting reports, that’s not necessarily good news,” Fugate said.
President Bush declared Palm Beach, Brevard, Indian River, Martin and St. Lucie counties to be federal disaster areas, setting the stage for assistance to individuals along with debris removal, emergency protective measures, efforts to mitigate hazards, and money to help reimburse local governments for money they spent on the storm efforts.
As many as 2 million people in South Florida were without electricity, and Florida Power & Light said it could be 24 to 36 hours before repair crews could even begin to restore power because the storm is moving so slowly. The utility says it has amassed more than 6,000 restoration personnel from other utilities and contractors throughout the United States to help with the huge job ahead.
In Boynton Beach, a mother and her three children narrowly escaped death Saturday after they were overcome with carbon monoxide fumes from a gas generator. Police answered a disturbance call, figured out what was wrong and threw open the windows. The family was then rushed to a local hospital in squad cars.
From his Palm Beach County porch, Jerry Kern, 40, could see a power line dangling and the fallen tree that took it down.
There are a lot more people walking around here than there should be,” said the vice president of Trainor Glass Co. There’s huge trees down. The scary part is tree limbs flying around and the other scary part is the flooding. If we get 14 inches of rain in one day, we could be wading around in water here, and we’re not in a flood zone.”
Although forecasters downgraded the storm to a Category 2 hurricane just before it made landfall, Frances still packed plenty of punch, especially on its north side.
In Stuart, traffic lights dangled, and one hung by a single wire. Downed trees blocked streets, and signposts were bent to the ground. The facade at a flooring store collapsed, as did the roof of a storage shed at a car dealership.
The forecast track brings the center back over the waters of the northeastern Gulf of Mexico in 36 hours. The slow motion should cause Frances to weaken considerable over land and it is not expected that she will regain hurricane intensity over the Gulf, forecasters said.
The storm’s slow-motion assault came more than a day later than predicted.
En route, Frances shattered windows, toppled power lines and flooded neighborhoods in the Bahamas, driving thousands from their homes and leaving two people dead.
One man was found floating face-down on the western end of Grand Bahama Island, police Superintendent Basil Rahming said. Police believe the man had been trying to swim to safety. Another man was electrocuted as the storm raged through Nassau on Friday.
Police also said they feared another man in his 80s was likely killed when his house collapsed Saturday near the western tip of Grand Bahama.
Several people were injured when a roof collapsed in a clinic in South Abaco island, about 30 miles west of Grand Bahama, the Ministry of Public Works said. The victims were being airlifted to a hospital in Nassau.
Frances’ arrival in Florida came three weeks after Hurricane Charley killed 27 people and caused billions of dollars in damage in southwestern Florida.
Most of the Florida Peninsula remained under a hurricane or tropical storm warning, and as many as 30 Florida counties initiated either a mandatory or voluntary evacuation. Frances was so big that virtually the entire state feared damage from wind and heavy rain. Forecasters said the storm would dump 8 to 12 inches of rain, with up to 20 inches in some areas.
The largest evacuation in state history, with 2.8 million residents ordered inland, sent 70,000 residents and tourists into shelters. The storm shut down much of Florida, including airports and amusement parks, at the start of the usually busy Labor Day weekend.
Some evacuees, frustrated by Frances’ sluggish pace, decided to leave shelters Saturday and return later.
Deborah Nicholas dashed home from a Fort Pierce shelter to take a shower, but stayed only a few minutes when the lights started flickering and trees began popping out of the ground. She has slept in a deck chair at a high school cafeteria since Wednesday.
“I’m going stir crazy,” Nicholas said. “I’m going to be in a straitjacket by Monday. I don’t know how much longer I can take it. Have mercy.”
The storm meant extended vacations for about 10,000 passengers on nine Carnival Corp. ships unable return to Miami’s port on schedule. They were expected to arrive late Sunday or Monday.
A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter rescued a man and his cat riding out the storm on a sailboat anchored in Biscayne Bay. At Palm Beach International Airport, the roof and a door were blown off a hangar.
Kevin Palmer, a photographer in Palm Beach County, said the wind blew so hard at his front door that it was making the copper weather stripping around it vibrate and shriek violently.
“It’s become our high-gust alarm,” Palmer said. “It sets the tone for your ambiance when you’ve got the rumbling outside, you have this screeching from the weather stripping and you keep wondering if that thumping you just heard is another tree going over or a coconut going flying.”
No rest for the weary. The ninth named storm of the season grew to near-hurricane strength Saturday in the far eastern Atlantic. Ivan was about 1,355 miles east-southeast of the Lesser Antilles, moving west near 18 miles per hour. Early predictions had it reaching the Dominican Republic and Haiti on Thursday.
Sun-Sentinel.com
