STUART, Fla., Sept. 6 -- Hurricane Frances sealed its legacy as a ponderous tormentor on Monday, flailing at Florida for a third straight day as it slipped into the Gulf of Mexico and came crashing back to land with heavy winds and rains on the Panhandle.
Frances has killed at least 12 people -- nine in Florida, two in the Bahamas, and one late Monday in Georgia, when a young woman died after the car she was riding in hydroplaned and overturned during the storm, state police said. But the predictions of monumental floods from the soggy storm, so feared for their potential to sweep away neighborhoods and electrocute people near downed power lines, never materialized.
Three weeks after Hurricane Charley struck the Gift Store in Daytona Beach, owner Fady Awadaloa surveys damage done by Hurricane Frances. The damage estimate for Frances could reach $7 billion.
(Dudley M. Brooks -- The Washington Post)
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_____Florida Recovers_____
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AP Video Report: Trucks bearing ice, water and food began rolling south from Jacksonville Monday, heading for storm-ravaged areas on the east coast and in central Florida.
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_____Frances Crosses Florida_____
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Map: After moving slowly across Florida from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Frances made a second landfall in the Panhandle.
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_____Photo Gallery_____
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Frances Pounds Florida: Reduced for the moment from a hurricane to a tropical storm, Frances headed for the Gulf of Mexico and the Florida Panhandle late Sunday afternoon.
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_____A Stormy Season_____
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Most Learn to Cope, but Some Talk of Leaving (The Washington Post, Sep 7, 2004)
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Floods Mean Some Must Keep Waiting for Power (The Washington Post, Sep 7, 2004)
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St. Cloud, Staggering On After a One-Two Punch (The Washington Post, Sep 7, 2004)
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Frances Weakens, but Drenches Fla. (The Washington Post, Sep 6, 2004)
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Shelter From the Storm (The Washington Post, Sep 6, 2004)
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Slow-Moving Frances Keeping Relief at Bay (The Washington Post, Sep 6, 2004)
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Region's Workers Bound for Florida To Aid in Recovery (The Washington Post, Sep 6, 2004)
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A Driving Desire To Be in Cars Despite Curfews (The Washington Post, Sep 6, 2004)
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Frances Pummels Florida (The Washington Post, Sep 5, 2004)
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After Facing Charley, Floridians Gird for Round 2 (The Washington Post, Sep 5, 2004)
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Waiting For the Eye, And Ready To Blink (The Washington Post, Sep 5, 2004)
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2 Storms In Florida Not Seen As Trend (The Washington Post, Sep 3, 2004)
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Hurricane Paths of 2004 Season
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The storm left behind a primal search for resources as it traveled over more than 300 miles of Florida, spanning from the glitzy villas of Palm Beach to the drab state government high-rises of Tallahassee. Gas lines stretched as long as a quarter-mile outside the few stations that could power their pumps in coastal towns where Frances first made landfall, such as Stuart and Fort Pierce. Hundreds crowded into public parks to get ice from relief organizations. At times, as many as 6 million utility customers were without power, and nerves were already fraying: Call-in radio shows seethed with complaints about the wait for ice, water and electricity.
Convoys of state and federal relief crews -- delayed by abominable road conditions on Sunday -- streamed into southeastern Florida all day. The long lines of military vehicles carrying personnel and supplies gave the state's major arteries the appearance of a war zone. Thousands of power company workers worried over downed lines, restoring power to millions. Still, more than 3 million customers were unable to warm their water, refrigerate their food or light their homes on Monday afternoon.
Frances's cartoonish features -- its massive eye and its stultifyingly slow pace -- make it one of the strangest and most remarkable storms in modern U.S. history. Few hurricanes have spent so much time over land or had such imposing cores.
"It's rare, especially considering the strength of the hurricane," said Cary J. Mock, a hurricane historian at the University of South Carolina.
Frances weakened to a tropical depression by Monday night, dipping to 35-mph winds as it churned across the Panhandle after making landfall again near Apalachicola. It dropped heavy rains on the Panhandle and spun off tornadoes as far south as Jupiter and as far north as southern Georgia. Of the nine deaths blamed on the storm in Florida, five involved traffic accidents, the Associated Press reported.
President Bush announced that he will travel to Florida on Wednesday to survey damage. He asked Congress to approve $2 billion to help the state recover from Frances and from Hurricane Charley, the huge storm that battered Florida's west coast three weeks ago. Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry issued a statement urging Americans to donate to the American Red Cross and other charities.
Frances, a Category 2 hurricane with 105-mph winds, did not blow as hard as Hurricane Charley, which was a Category 4 hurricane with 145-mph winds when it whacked Florida's west coast. Nor did Frances leave the almost operatic scenes of destruction that Charley painted in the mangled trailer-park retirement villages of Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte.
But Gov. Jeb Bush (R) said on Monday that the cost of damage caused by Frances's winds and its widespread flooding could equal the $7 billion impact of Charley. Risk Management Solutions, a Newark, Calif., firm that estimates storm damage, said that losses from Frances could cost insurers $3 billion to $6 billion.
The damage figure is likely to be that high because Frances spread over so much of Florida. At one point on Sunday, nearly the entire state -- from the Keys to Jacksonville -- was cast in gray by Frances's cloud cover. The eye was even more staggering, peaking at 60 miles across.
"I was almost intimidated when I saw it," said Jeff Shaughnessy, the meteorologist for the South Florida Water Management District. "I had never seen one bigger than 35 miles. I didn't think that was possible."
The hurricane caused more damage at the Kennedy Space Center than any other storm. Its winds punched two holes in the gargantuan Vehicle Assembly Building, creating 40,000 square feet of "open windows" in one of the most recognizable images of the U.S. space program.
By mid-afternoon Monday, Florida was a utility nightmare. The mayor of Fort Pierce warned residents that their drinking water would be "cloudy." Boil-water orders were issued in towns across the length of Florida's Treasure Coast, the area around Jupiter and Stuart, and its Space Coast, the region slightly to the north, anchored by the Kennedy Space Center. At least 53 of Florida's 67 counties had experienced power outages and 47 had issued evacuation orders for low-lying areas.
