Hurricane/Cyclone/Typhoon Journal Entry

Hurricane Frances Slams Florida (September 5, 2004)

Hurricane Frances slammed into the eastern coast of Florida over the Labor Day weekend with ferocious winds and sheets of rain. The massive Category 2 storm packed sustained winds of over 105 miles per hour (168 kilometers/hour) when it made landfall at Sewall's Point north of Palm Beach early Sunday. Wind gusts were clocked as high as 125 mph (200 km/h) at Cape Canaveral as the storm hit.

Earlier in the week, Frances was a frightening Category 4 storm. It blasted the Bahamas with sustained winds that peaked at 145 mph (232 km/h), killing two people. Frances then stalled on its approach to Florida, picking up vast amounts of moisture as it crawled over the warm waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

Evacuation orders were given for 2.8 million people, the most ever in the state, as Frances neared. But many people chose to hunker down and wait out the storm from their homes rather than move to shelters.

With winds extending 85 miles (135 km) from its center, the huge hurricane roared ashore. Frances dumped more than 13 inches (32 centimeters) of rain on the central east coast. Massive storm surges battered the coast while streets turned into rivers, with floodwaters four feet (1.2 meters) deep in some places. Tree limbs snapped like toothpicks and some roofs were ripped from homes. Power lines were downed, knocking out electricity to more than 2 million people. But despite the storm's violence, only two people were killed in the state.

Frances remained dangerous as it inched westward across the central part of the state at a snail-like 9 mph. The weakening storm was expected to move out over the Gulf of Mexico. But a reenergized Frances may reenter Florida over the panhandle by late-Monday.