September 2, 2004 3:31 PM (ET)
By TIM REYNOLDS
Photo: A NOAA infrared satellite image of Hurricane Frances is seen over the Bahamas, Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2004, at 11:15 a.m. EDT. Forecasters warned the core of the Category 4 storm with 145-mph top sustained winds was due along Florida's Atlantic coast late Friday or early Saturday. (AP Photo/NOAA)
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (AP) - More than a million people threatened by Hurricane Frances were told to clear out Thursday, and residents scrambled to board up homes and stock up on water ahead of what could be Florida's mightiest storm in a decade.
A hurricane warning covered much of the state's eastern coast, meaning wind of at least 74 mph was likely by midmorning Friday, three weeks after Hurricane Charley raked the state's western coast with 145 mph wind, causing billions of dollars in damage and killing 27 people.
With its winds also at 145 mph, Frances is as strong as the Category 4 Charley, and it's twice the size, with hurricane-force winds extending up to 80 miles from its center, said Stephen Baig, a forecaster at the National Hurricane Center in Miami. That means the path of destruction could be much wider. Frances was also about twice the size of 1992's Hurricane Andrew, the Category 5 storm that destroyed much of southern Miami-Dade County.
Traffic on Interstate 95, a main Atlantic coast highway, started to back up by lunchtime Thursday. Supermarkets were stripped of bottled water and canned goods, and long lines formed before dawn outside home supply stores in Palm Beach County, with dozens of people hoping for a chance to buy plywood or generators. A delivery truck's arrival was met with raucous applause.
Photo: A NOAA infrared satellite image of Hurricane Frances is seen over the Bahamas, Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2004, at 11:15 a.m. EDT. Forecasters warned the core of the Category 4 storm with 145-mph top sustained winds was due along Florida's Atlantic coast late Friday or early Saturday. (AP Photo/NOAA)
Jenny Stimpson, 32, joined hundreds of others hunting for last-minute supplies at a Wal-Mart in Stuart but found only ice. She bought 25 bags because, she said, "everywhere you go, you better grab something because it won't be there if you go back later."
The hurricane warning covered a 300-mile stretch from Florida City, near the state's southern tip, to Flagler Beach, north of Daytona Beach. Gov. Jeb Bush declared a state of emergency.
Most people who were told to evacuate were in South Florida - 300,000 in Palm Beach County, 250,000 in Broward County and 320,000 in Miami-Dade County, including the entire city of Miami Beach, with its Art Deco hotels and glitzy nightclubs. Farther north, up to 185,000 people were urged out of Brevard County, and 120,000 in Volusia County.
State officials worried about finding enough room in shelters. Many hotel rooms in southern Florida are still occupied by emergency workers and people left homeless by Charley. Some schools and community centers are still being used as shelters.
Reservation clerks at sold-out hotels groaned with each telephone ring, knowing someone seeking a room was on the other end. And demand for gas was so great some stations were pumped dry.
Patricia Thomas, 40, of Vero Beach, couldn't find premium fuel for her BMW coupe. "I just want to fill up my car and get far away from here," she said, her eyes puffy and red. "I'm mad, I'm frustrated, I'm scared. I'm not in a good place right now."
The I-95 traffic stretched for at least 5 miles in Brevard County, east of Orlando, but was moving slowly. The state said it could reverse lanes on some highways to handle extra evacuation volume, and tolls were rescinded on major roads.
State officials hoped to avoid a repeat of the evacuation mess during Hurricane Floyd in 1999, when 1.3 million people were told to evacuate the state's eastern coast. Traffic backed up 30 miles or more as people headed inland. In the end, Floyd veered northward and largely spared Florida.
As evacuees from Frances streamed northward Thursday, the parking lot of a Holiday Inn in Tifton, Ga., filled with cars and RVs with Florida tags.
"You can't do anything if you don't have your lives," said Brian Marwood, who fled to Tifton from Orlando with his wife, Erika, and dog, Buster. "For us it's our lives and our psyches, and then everything else." The couple, who moved to Florida from Colorado just two months ago, had weathered Charley's rampage in their bathroom.
As of 2 p.m., Frances' center was 410 miles east-southeast of the lower Florida coast. It was moving west-northwest near 13 mph, and was expected to turn to the northwest and decrease forward speed during the next 24 hours, the hurricane center said.
The last time two major storms hit Florida so close together was 1950, when Hurricane Easy hit the Tampa area and Hurricane King struck Miami about six weeks later. Neither of those storms was as powerful as Charley or Frances.
Forecasters said the outer edges of Frances could begin affecting Florida late Thursday. Officials in Georgia and the Carolinas, battered by storms over the past month, also were keeping watch on Frances, and a state of emergency was also issued in Georgia.
"The people here are paying this one a little more attention than they normally would ...," said Walter Parker, mayor of Tybee Island, Ga. "They saw what Charley did to Florida."
France could become a Category 5 with winds of 156 mph or higher by the time it makes landfall, forecasters said. The difference wasn't something residents spent time discussing.
Category 4, Category 5, what's the difference? I'm still out of here," said Michele Byrd, 38, a food service executive from Vero Beach. "This one will probably be bigger than Charley. I don't see any way we're not getting hit."
In the Caribbean, the storm's lashing winds tore tin roofs off houses and plucked trees from the ground as it plowed through the Turks and Caicos. The Bahamas' prime minister warned that Frances could be the worst in the archipelago nation's history.
Many businesses along the U.S. Atlantic coast began closing Wednesday, some not planning to reopen until Sunday at the earliest. Cape Canaveral's Kennedy Space Center shut down, leery of the havoc Frances could bring. Forecasters said storm surges of 15 feet or more could affect the coast if Frances takes dead aim.
Court trials were canceled in 10 counties, cruise lines kept their ships away and schools in nine counties were shuttered for Thursday; another three planned to do the same Friday. In St. Lucie County, a curfew was to go in effect Friday night.
"It's going to hit somewhere," said Stephanie Graniero, who was having hurricane shutters attached to her store along a deserted commercial strip of Delray Beach. "You have to try to stay calm and not panic."
Associated Press writer Elliott Minor in Tifton, Ga., contributed to this report.
On the Net: National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040902/D84RN9TO1.html