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Jeanne Hits Fla. Coast With 120-Mph Winds

Posted on: Sunday, 26 September 2004, 06:00 CDT

STUART, Fla. - Hurricane Jeanne barreled up Florida's Atlantic Coast early Sunday with 120-mph winds and drenching rains, unceremoniously putting the weather-weary state in the record books.

The Category 3 storm became the fourth to pummel Florida in a single hurricane season, something that has not happened since 1886 when Texas was the target. The three other hurricanes - Charley, Frances and Ivan - have all hit within the last month and a half, about midway through the June-to-November season.

Jeanne came ashore shortly before midnight near the southern tip of Hutchinson Island, about 5 miles southeast of Stuart. Just three weeks ago, Frances ravaged the same area.

Angry swells licked pieces of mobile homes out to sea. At one of the causeway bridges leading to the barrier island, a sailboat bashed against the seawall and sank. Within minutes, all that remained above water was less than a foot of its yellow mast.

Emergency management officials were waiting until daylight to assess damage. The previous hurricanes caused billions of dollars in damage and killed at least 70 people.

"God, I hope it's over," Jaye Bell said early Sunday. The bartender from Jensen Beach rode out the storm at a Ramada Inn in Stuart.

The proximity of Jeanne and Frances impressed Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Mayfield said it was the "first time ever that we know of" that two hurricanes landed so close in place and time.

Jeanne was expected to make a turn to the north over central Florida and stay inland over Georgia and the Carolinas through Tuesday.

Rainfall totals of 5 to 10 inches were expected in the storm's path, and flooding could be a major concern because previous hurricanes had saturated the ground and filled canals, rivers and lakes.

Debris left from the other hurricanes flew through the air as Jeanne made landfall. And the storm did its own damage, ripping off part of a hosptial roof and cutting power to hundreds of thousands.

In Fort Pierce and Port St. Lucie, several people were rescued from homes during the relative calm of Jeanne's eye. No one was injured, but the residents "didn't think they were going to make it through the storm," St. Lucie County sheriff's Capt. Nate Spera said Sunday.

State officials had urged 2 million people to evacuate. Many like Ada Dent heeded the warning and took cover in shelters.

"Before I left home, I prayed over my house and I told God it was in his hands," said Dent, who went to a shelter in West Palm Beach with her 2-year-old grandson.

In Stuart, Martin Memorial Hospital North lost a major section of its roof, said Tom McNicholas, an emergency management spokesman in Martin County. Dozens of patients were moved to other floors, but no injuries were reported.

A condominium in Stuart had part of its roof collapse. One person was rescued.

In Cocoa Beach about 80 miles north of Stuart, Paul and Ann Jutras weathered another storm in their reinforced house that they claimed was hurricane-proof.

Sitting two blocks from the Atlantic Ocean, the structure has two roofs - in case one is damaged.

In Frances, "we got pounded for 37 hours, but the wind would blow for about 20 or 25 minutes and there would be a lull. This one, it's just not letting up at all," Paul Jutras said.

At 4 a.m. EDT Sunday, Jeanne was centered just north of Okeechobee and about 35 miles west-southwest of Vero Beach. It was moving west and slightly to the north at 13 mph. Top sustained winds had weakened to 115 mph.

Earlier, Jeanne tore across the Bahamas, leaving some neighborhoods submerged under 5 feet of water. No deaths or serious injuries were reported there, but the storm was earlier blamed for more than 1,500 deaths in floods in Haiti.

"I really can't believe it's happening all over again - and right in the same place," said Charity Brown, who moved to West Palm Beach from Chicago three months ago with her children, ages 5 and 3. They hid in a closet as Frances tore the roof off their apartment. That hole is now covered by a tarp, so the family went to a shelter at an elementary school Saturday.

"I'm going to get out of (Florida). It's scary. It's crazy."

Jeanne followed Charley, which struck Aug. 13 and devastated southwest Florida; Frances, which struck Labor Day weekend; and Ivan, which blasted the western Panhandle when it made landfall in nearby Alabama on Sept. 16. The storms caused billions of dollars in combined damage and killed at least 70 people in Florida alone.

Officials ran out of time to remove tall piles of debris - from branches to sodden furniture and building materials - that remained on neighborhood streets, left over from Frances. Some people took to burning the debris to lessen the amount that could become dangerously airborne.

The storm made even more difficult the formidable job of keeping the lights on in Florida. Early Sunday, more than 816,000 customers were without power. Officials feared the storm could leave millions without electricity, some for three weeks or more.

Gas stations and businesses were boarded up and deserted, and law enforcement took to the radio airwaves, saying that anyone who was outside their homes after the 6 p.m. curfew Saturday would be jailed.

It was unknown how many people urged to evacuate actually did, but state officials said more than 42,500 people, many with homes already damaged by Frances, were housed in shelters.

LaTrease Haliburton reluctantly checked into a West Palm Beach shelter with her 6-year-old daughter, who has had nightmares since Frances caved in the bathroom ceiling in her family's apartment.

"I want to make sure my daughter isn't as scared this time," Haliburton said.

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Associated Press writer Jill Barton in West Palm Beach contributed to this report.

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On the Net:

National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov

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