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Sunday, September 26, 2004 |
| At 11 PM EDT the center of Tropical Storm Jeanne was 35 miles west-northwest of Gainesville and 100 miles southeast of Valdosta, Georgia. Motion is to the west-northwest at 12 mph. Wind speeds are down to 50 mph and Jeanne should be a tropical depression by midday tomorrow, if not sooner. I've actually had power blink here a couple of times in the past hour even though the peak wind here has only been 31 knots (compared to 53 knots from Frances). My sister who lives in McCollum Hall lost her outside internet for a few minutes (although the campus network was still up, so she could still send email). Looking at the county my parents are from (Clay, southwest of Jacksonville), 96,000 of 150,000 Clay Electric customers were without power as of 10 PM. During the wildfires in '98 it was said that it would be a long time before a firefighter would be able to buy himself a beer. The same might be true for the people working to restore power as they have had an incredible few weeks. Weather comment []11:01:28 PM  trackback []
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| At 8 PM the center of Tropical Storm Jeanne was 10 miles south of Bronson, Florida and 30 miles southwest of Gainesville. Movement is to the northwest at 13 mph and maximum sustained winds are down to 55 mph. Spoke to my father on the phone a short while ago. He is one of 19,217 customers without power in Clay County. Florida Power and Light shows about 1.1 million of their customers without power at this time. Throw in the other counties surrounding Jacksonville and those still without power in the Panhandle aand those in the Tampa Bay area,you have about 1.7 million customers without people around the state. Due to the incredibly stretched resources, everyone is being advised that it will probably take longer to restore power than it did in the previous storms. Unfortunately, there is another death to report, bringing my unofficial count to seven: Clay County police spokeswoman Mary Justino said a
15-year-old boy died about 5:30 p.m. when a tree fell in Fleming Island
on Harvey Grant Road.
Since my last update, the National Weather Service in Jacksonville has
been issuing warnings for a waterspout / tornado indicated by Doppler
radar along the coast of St. John's County and moving north into Duval
County. No verification so far.Weather comment []8:10:30 PM trackback []
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| Enough history for now, back to the present time. At 5 PM EDT, the center of Tropical Storm Jeanne was 35 miles southeast of Cedar Key, Florida and moving to the northwest at 12 mph. Maximum sustained winds are 65 mph with tropical storm force winds extending up to 175 miles from the center. Five are dead because of Jeanne. One person in Miami was electrocuted by a downed power line and two people drowned when their SUV went into a lake northwest of Florida during the storm. In Brevard County, "a 60-year-old man was found dead after consuming a lot of alcohol during a Hurricane Jeanne party in the southern Brevard community" and a man apparently drove his pickup truck into a canal and subsequently drowned. Buildings damaged, roads flooded, as Treasure Coast pummeled again (AP)
Florida Today TCPalm and the Palm Beach Post all have photo galleries.2 dead after Jeanne rips into Brevard (Florida Today) Locally, Leon County has cancelled school for tomorrow as have several counties to our east. FSU's President and Vice-Presidents are meeting to discuss the operational status of the University. LATER: A tornado watch is up for northeast Florida and southeast Georgia until 1 AM EDT. This afternoon, The National Weather Serivce office in Jacksonville has issued three tornado warnings based on doppler radar observations. A tornado warning issued at 2:34 PM for St. John's County may have verified: St. Johns County officials reported that a tornado
damaged five mobile homes about 3 p.m. on U.S. 1 just south of County
Road 206. The destruction included a tree into one home and roof damage
on the others. One woman in the home hit by the tree was not injured,
said Fire Chief Bobby Hall. LATER YET:Westward movement lightens impact on First Coast (Florida Times-Union) After reviewing all available information, the President and Vice Presidents of Florida State University learned that Tropical Storm Jeanne is not expected to cause major disruptions or dangerous conditions warranting closure of the University. Therefore Florida State University will be open for business on Monday, September 27. Should conditions change significantly overnight, administrators
will reexamine the status of the University at first light Monday. EVEN LATER: In her comment, Donnah pointed out a possible death. From the Palm Beach Post: A vehicle with at least one person has gone off the South Beach Bridge into the Indian River Lagoon about 9:50 p.m., St. Lucie County officials said late Saturday.
A 911 dispatcher said they received two calls from witnesses who said
the vehicle pulled up to the barricade blocking the road, stopped, then
gunned the engine and became airborne Vehicle plunges into Indian River lagoon Today, from the same source Access to both North and South Hutchinson islands has been cut by damage to bridges and I-95 southbound is closed near the Okeechobee Boulevard by a truck entangled in power lines, St. Lucie County Administrator Doug Anderson said early Sunday. "I've ordered helicopters, rescue boats and all-terrain
vehicles to get out there once the wind dies down," Anderson said."We
can't get out there so don't really know what we have."
The Coast Guard has confirmed damage to the bridge railing where a car was seen going into the Indian River Lagoon Saturday. Hutchinson Island access cut off by bridge damage The Coast Guard is searching for a surfer reported missing off Miami Beach as Hurricane Jeanne approaches the east coast of Florida today.
Coast Guard Sector Miami received the report at approximately 5:25
p.m. from the 9-1-1 dispatch center which received a report that the
surfer was missing in the vicinity of 7100 block of Miami Beach. Weather comment []5:12:22 PM trackback []
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| Hurricane Number 5 The center crossed the coast line of Florida a short distance south of Fort Pierce on the 30th (July),
accompanied by a wind at that place of 60 miles per hour from the
southeast. However, no great amount of damage resulted as the
disturbance moved westward over the Florida Peninsula and passed into
the Gulf of Mexico betwen Tampa and Fort Myers. Storm warnings
were displayed on the east Florida coast from Miami to Titusville and
on the west coast from Tarpon Springs to Punta Rassa.
The National Hurricane Center archives indicate that it made landfall as a hurricane (75 mph winds)Hurricane Number 12 At 4 p.m. of the 3d (September),
northwest storm warnings were ordered displayed at Miami, hurricane
warnings north of Melbourne to Jacksonville. At 10 p.m. storm
warnings were displayed on the west Florida coast north of Key West to
Cedar Keys.
The storm center apparently passed directly over Jupiter Inlet, Fla., where there was a lull of 40 minutes beginning near midnight of the 3d. The lowest barometer reading at Jupiter was 27.98" and the estimated maximum wind velocity was 125 miles per hour. At West Palm Beach the lowest barometer reading was 28.77 inches with a maximum wind velocity close to 80 miles per hour. According to the official in charge at Miami, the only evidence of damage at West Palm Beach was the effects of high winds upon trees and shrubbery. However, a number of plate glass windows were broken and the damage in this respect would have been much greater except for the extensive protective measures taken. Between West Palm Beach and Jupiter, and extending northward to Fort Pierece, there was serious damage to electrical transmission lines and to telephone and telegraph wires, with many poles broken off or blown over. At Stuart there was serious damage from both wind and water. The most extensive damage in the entire area was at Olympia Beach, north of Jupiter Inlet, where there was widespread destruction of trees and shrubbery and serious damage to houses. The greatest loss was to the citrus crop in the Indian River section from Jupiter to Fort Pierce. In the vicinity of Stuart, there are several groves that sustained a 100 percent loss of fruit and the uprotting of many trees. The estimated loss of citrys fruit for the state is 15 percent, or 4,000,000 boxes. This storm recurved to the north during the afternoon of the 4th when its center was near the coast north of Tampa. Moving very slowly northward with diminishing intensity during the next 2 days it dissipated over Georgia on the 7th. Quotes from the 1933 Monthly Weather Review (PDF) Weather comment []3:56:36 PM trackback []
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| The following warning was issued on the 16th Hoist hurricane warnings 10:30 AM Miami
to Daytona, FL * * * No report this morning from Nassau.
Indications are that hurricane center will reach the Florida coast near
Jupiter early to-night. Emergency. Advice all
interests. This hurricane is of wide extend and great
severity. Every precaution should be taken against destructive
winds and high tides on Florida east coast, especially West Palm Beach
to Daytona.
The storm made landfall that evening in Palm Beach County (between Jupiter and Boca Raton) and would be remembered as the Lake Okeechobee Hurricane. Florida Cracker had a post during Frances reminding us of this storm. How quickly I forget. The Warning quote is from the 1928 Monthly Weather Review (PDF), which makes for interesting reading. It mentions the August storm as well. The book Florida's Hurricane History has an entry on the storm as well. After this year, that book is in for a bit of an update. Weather comment []3:27:21 PM trackback []
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| Inspired by this story in tcpalm.com : Hurricane Jeanne made landfall in almost the same spot as Frances , I went in search of cases of storms landfalling in nearly the same spot in realtively short periods of time. North Carolina has had the situation recently as the article notes: Two hurricanes have hit in virtually the same
location during a single hurricane season, he said. In 1996, Hurricanes
Fran and Bertha hit around Wilmington, N.C. about six weeks apart.
The situation that popped into my mind first was 1999 , when Dennis made landfall as a tropical storm (after being a hurricane) on September 4 at Cape Lookout, North Carolina and Hurricane Floyd
made landfall on September 16 just to the south at Cape Fear, NC.
The heavy rainfall from Floyd onto ground saturated by Dennis set up
massive flooding in northeast North Carolina and parts of southeast
Virginia.As mentioned in the article, in 1996 Hurricane Bertha made landfall between Wrightsville and Topsail Beaches in North Carolina on July 12 and Hurricane Fran made landfall near Cape Fear on September 6. You have to go back a ways to start finding similar examples. 1964 was another year that three hurricanes made landfall in Florida. In that year, Hurricane Cleo made landfall in southeast Florida on August 27 and passes by Jacksonville as a tropical storm on August 28. On September 9, Hurricane Dora made landfall as a category three hurricane. In 1959 Cindy hit central South Carolina on July 9. She was followed by Gracie on September 23. 1947 saw two hurricanes on opposite trajectories pass through South Florida. One in September and the other in October. 1935 was also a hurricane year for South Florida, with the famous category five Labor Day storm and another hurricane coming through the area in November. 1933 has the very closest thing to an exact parallel to Frances and Jeanne. On July 30 Hurricane Number 5 made landfall and on September 4 Hurricane Number 12 made landfall in the same vicinity as Frances and Jeanne. Ditto for Hurricanes Number 1 and 4 of 1928, which made landfall on August 7 and September 16 respectively. 1926 is another example of storms on opposite trajectories passing through the Keys within a month of each other. 1906 Poor Keys 1893 Near repeat for South Carolina June 1886 Two hurricanes in Florida's Panhandle/Big Bend region. In July one would pass north of Tampa. 1885 was a prolific tropical storm year for the Panhandle. 1877 Two hurricanes in the Panhandle in just over two weeks. 1870 Parallel tracks within two weeks of each other in South Florida / Keys. Both hurricanes. Weather comment []2:33:57 PM trackback []
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| At 11 AM EDT, the center of Hurricane Jeanne was 30 miles east-southeast of Tampa and moving to the west northwest at 10 mph. Maximum sustained winds are 75 mph and the wind field has shrunk so that hurricane force winds extend 70 miles from the center and tropical storm force winds extend 175 miles from the center. Jeanne continues due to her interaction with land. Her short trip over water shouldn't cause any strengthening. Weather comment []11:26:43 AM trackback []
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| Went to bed somewhat early last night not feeling well. A good night's sleep did me good. At 9 AM EDT, the center of Hurricane Jeanne was 15 miles south of Bartow, Florida and 50 miles east-southeast of Tampa. Jeanne is moving to the west-northwest at 12 mph and winds are down to 85 miles per hour. Hurricane force winds extend up to 70 miles from the center and tropical storm force winds extend up to 205 miles from the center. Weather comment []9:46:11 AM trackback []
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© Copyright
2004
Charles Fenwick
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Last update: 10/2/2004; 11:03:37 PM .
Last update: 10/2/2004; 11:03:37 PM .
