- Brad Johnston was planning to spend today's Labor Day
holiday cruising to the Bahamas with his young family. Instead, he will
spend the day picking up the pieces of his 26ft motor cruiser shattered
by the 105mph winds of Hurricane Frances.
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- The huge and powerful storm that had threatened 15 million
people along Florida's east coast for two days finally came ashore early
yesterday, the 75-mile wide eye passing directly over the Treasure Coast
town of Stuart, where Mr Johnston's yacht was moored.
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- It was forced from its moorings by the huge waves thrown
up by Hurricane Frances and smashed into the quayside, shattering the bow
and letting in seawater that flooded the boat's interior and ruined everything
inside.
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- "I guess we were lucky," Mr Johnston said.
"At least we have our home."
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- The category two hurricane, the second natural disaster
to strike Florida in three weeks following Hurricane Charley's ravaging
of the west coast, was still raging last night, making it difficult for
emergency officials to assess the extent of the damage and destruction.
-
- But with the backend of the hurricane threatening more
than 30cm (12 inches) of rain over much of the state, and widespread flooding
predicted, President George Bush had already declared four counties a disaster
zone, freeing up millions of dollars in federal aid for the thousands of
people likely to be left homeless.
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- The giant hurricane,1,000 miles wide at its peak, caused
the evacuation of 2.5 million residents, the largest such operation in
Florida's history.
-
- Officials from the state's electricity provider, Florida
Power and Light, estimated that up to 4 million residents were left without
power. For those unable to return to their homes, help was on the way.
More than 6,000 National Guardsmen were due to be deployed and the American
Red Cross, which operated 233 emergency shelters statewide during the storm,
announced its biggest disaster relief operation, costing twice the $81m
(£46m) spent after Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
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- Florida's governor, Jeb Bush, said that aid organisations
expected to serve more than a million hot meals a day and that hundreds
of lorries were on standby to bring food, water and bags of ice to areas
most in need once conditions allowed.
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- "We won't be waiting for blue skies to react, but
we will wait until we can do it safely," said Craig Fugate, Florida's
director of emergency management.
-
- Almost 100,000 people chose to sit out the storm in emergency
shelters and last night many were being urged to stay put because conditions
outside were still considered to be too dangerous, although no deaths or
serious injuries were reported in Florida.
-
- "I've never seen a storm anything like it,"
said Mr Johnston, a 42-year-old marine engineer. "It's so intense.
There's so much rain and wind and it's just going on and on."
-
- Many people were angry and frustrated that Frances had
stuck around so long. The storm ambled across from the Bahamas on Friday
afternoon, where it was blamed for two deaths, and seated itself just off
Florida's south-east coast, churning away overhead like a giant washing
machine for more than 48 hours before resuming its westward crawl towards
the state late on Saturday.
-
-
- "It's painstakingly slow," said Max Mayfield,
director of the National Hurricane Centre. "You could be in the eye
for 12 hours or more, then the backside of the storm is yet to come."
Forecasters said the storm would take at least 18 hours to make its way
completely across the state.
-
- If the storm itself seemed endless, the clean-up operation
will last much longer. The first damage assessment crews to appear on the
streets yesterday were faced with a forest of fallen trees and branches
inland, and seafront roads resembled the beaches from which tons of sand
and other debris were kicked up by waves more than 3 metres (about 10ft)
tall.
-
- "Big chunks of coral are coming out of the ocean
floor on to the boardwalk," said the mayor of Hollywood, Mara Giulianti.
"We have water everywhere. It's pretty frightening."
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- With the flooding came the danger of electrocution from
fallen power lines. Florida Power and Light positioned a 6,000-strong task
force of workers on the border with Georgia, ready to move south and set
to work as soon as the dangerous conditions eased.
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- "We are seeing extensive damage and we have a great
deal of work ahead of us," said a spokeswoman, Kathy Scott.
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- The sheriff of Broward County, Ken Jenne, warned of other
potential hazards facing the hundreds of thousands of evacuees planning
to return to their homes today. "We have dozens of traffic lights
down, and people either wait and wait at them or they just zoom through,"
he said. One motorist was killed in a post-hurricane road accident in Deerfield
Beach.
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- Three people were taken to hospital in Boynton Beach
suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning after running a petrol generator
indoors, and Governor Bush advised the public to take extra care when removing
hurricane shutters or using chainsaws to cut up fallen trees. "If
you've never used a power tool such as this before, now is not the time
to start doing it," he said.
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- Hospitals around south Florida reported a surge in the
number of weekend births. Don Chester, administrator at St Mary's Medical
centre in West Palm Beach, said 100 expectant mothers were admitted as
the storm passed by. "We've delivered six babies, four boys and two
girls, but none named Frances," he said.
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- But in Stuart, a guest at the Suburban Lodge hotel who
was unable to reach hospital in time, gave birth to a baby girl on Saturday
night as the storm moved in. The baby will be christened Miranda Frances
Bennett.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004 http://WWW.GUARDIAN.CO.UK/naturaldisasters/story/0,7369,1297975,00.html
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