After stalling off the coast and whipping the shoreline with its enormous tendrils, Hurricane Frances pounded into Florida early Sunday, sending anxious residents of this storm-ravaged state into safe rooms where they hunkered down for what was expected to be a long thrashing.
Frances’ eye made landfall about 1 a.m. near Sewall’s Point, just east of Stuart, about 40 miles north of West Palm Beach.
As heavy rains and 105-m.p.h. winds lashed the coast Saturday, officials told residents who had not reinforced their homes to get into bathtubs and use mattresses for protection.
The monstrous storm crashed waves onto beaches, knocked down trees, ripped apart roofs and knocked out electricity to 2 million people. As power went out, the area plunged into darkness except for the occasional sparks from downed power lines. Palm tree fronds, whipped by the winds, wrapped around trunks as if trying to protect themselves.
The winds tore boats from their moorings and tossed them like toys against bridges. Plywood and debris somersaulted through streets.
“Those folks are getting pounded, and they’ve got worse to come,” Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center, said Saturday.
Powerful and wildly unpredictable, Hurricane Frances had stopped and churned in place for several hours near the western Bahamas before resuming its slow movement toward Florida.
The storm’s stop-and-go approach forced officials to continually change landfall predictions. With winds up to 125 m.p.h., Frances was moving about 5 m.p.h. as it struck the coast.
The storm shut down much of Florida, including airports and amusement parks, at the start of the Labor Day weekend.
Officials predicted 12 hours of hurricane-force winds and up to 12 inches of rainfall, more in some areas. There was a chance that the Frances would hover for two cycles of high tide, meaning two rounds of storm surges of 5 to 10 feet.
“The storm, unlike Charley and others in the past, will be with us for a long, long time,” said Gov. Jeb Bush. “This is going to be a tough ride.”
Hurricane Charley killed 27 people and caused billions of dollars in damage to southwestern Florida three weeks ago.
2 deaths in the Bahamas
Earlier in the Bahamas, Frances tore apart houses, flooded neighborhoods and caused at least two deaths. One man was found floating dead on the western end of Grand Bahama Island, said police, who suspect he had been trying to swim to safety. Another man was electrocuted as the storm raged through Nassau on Friday.
Four people were hospitalized in Boynton Beach, Fla., after breathing carbon monoxide fumes from a generator that was running in a house.
“This storm is bringing us everything,” said Craig Fugate, Florida’s top emergency management official. “It’s going to bring storm surge, it’s going to bring hurricane-force winds for a sustained period of time, it’s going to bring torrential rainfall, it’s going to bring tornadoes.”
In Washington, President Bush declared a major disaster in the counties affected by Frances, meaning residents will be eligible for federal aid.
People crowded inside an elementary school-turned-shelter in Lake Worth, where officials said they had surpassed their 500-person capacity but still were accepting people. “We’re not closing the doors,” said Walter Baker, 53, a volunteer who took down the names of new arrivals.
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In the gymnasium, blankets spread end-to-end created a patchwork on the floor. Families clumped in groups, surrounded by strollers, suitcases and garbage bags full of belongings. Children darted amid the crowd, and a huge line of people waiting for lunch weaved across the room.
Many had been in the shelter for two days, having arrived when officials first announced the evacuation orders; it was the largest evacuation in state history, with 2.8 million residents ordered inland.
After the power went out and the shelter switched to emergency generators early Saturday, the air conditioning failed. People lined the hallways, gathered in doorways for a smoke or pulled blankets over their heads to get some sleep.
“They ought to call this hurricane sluggish,” said Peter DiMichele, 76, a Boynton Beach resident who sat on a cot eating saltine crackers.
Nerve-racking experience
“It’s frustrating,” said Marlene Mahanes, 37, who sat nearby. “I never expected the hurricane would take this long.”
Mahanes had celebrated her birthday at the shelter Friday. Fellow storm refugees sang her “Happy Birthday”; one gave her some butterscotch pudding in lieu of cake. The company helped distract her from the storm, but she wondered how much longer she would have to stay.
Rob Houston, 28, was getting nervous as he watched water leak from the shelter’s ceiling. He had packed clothing in suitcases because he wasn’t sure if his home, a block from the Intercoastal Waterway, would be there when he got back.
Sylvain Collerette, 36, of Lake Worth took refuge at the shelter with his wife and 10-month-old baby after the roof at their apartment building blew off. He had gathered canned goods and bottled water in the days before the storm but did not have enough time to flee with the supplies in moving to the shelter.
“I took whatever I could grab in 30 seconds,” Collerette said.
Some who had fled their homes returned to them briefly Saturday.
Deborah Nicholas went home from a Ft. 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.”
Officials warned residents not to go outside because the enormous eye of the hurricane, measuring about 70 miles across, could take as long as four hours to pass overhead. During that time, the sky would clear and the strong winds would stop, giving the false impression that the storm had passed, they said.
Awaiting call to action
Gov. Bush urged people to stay close to their families and reassured residents that a huge relief effort was mobilizing to provide help as soon as the storm passed.
The American Red Cross had 130 emergency response vehicles loaded with water, snacks and other relief supplies at a staging area in Bradenton. Aid workers took over nearly 500,000 square feet of warehouse space from the Winn-Dixie supermarket chain to receive and distribute supplies.
Thousands of Red Cross volunteers arrived in the state and thousands more were expected after the storm. Bush issued a plea for help, urging residents of other states to send money for rebuilding efforts in his storm-ravaged state.
“For people watching from afar, if you want to make a difference, provide financial support to the Salvation Army or Red Cross or other groups actively involved in relief efforts,” the governor said.
Federal Emergency Management Agency officials said they soon would establish three staging areas to distribute supplies. They also had alerted search-and-rescue teams, and more than 300 doctors and nurses had been told to prepare to move into hard-hit areas.
State officials said they had negotiated with gasoline and shipping companies to quickly bring tankers to ports in Tampa and Jacksonville to refuel communities affected by the hurricane.
As soon as the storm passes, Bush said, “We will be on the ground doing everything we can to deal with people’s problems.”