Hurricane Jeanne
 | This article documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses, and initial news reports may be unreliable. The latest updates to this article may not reflect the most current information. |
- This article deals with the 2004 Hurricane Jeanne. For information on other storms of the same name, see Hurricane Jeanne (disambiguation).
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| Formed | September 13, 2004 as Tropical Depression Eleven |
| Wind Speed | 70 mph (110 km/h) |
| Highest Wind Speed | 120 mph (195 km/h) on September 25, 2004 |
| Category | n/a |
| Highest Category | Three |
| Territories affected | |
Hurricane Jeanne is the tenth named storm and the sixth hurricane and sixth major hurricane of the 2004 Atlantic hurricane season. It has affected the United States Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, the south-eastern Bahamas and Florida.
Storm history
Tropical Depression Eleven formed from a tropical wave 70 miles (110 km) east-southeast of Guadeloupe in the evening of September 13, and was upgraded to Tropical Storm Jeanne the next day. It passed south of the U.S. Virgin Islands on September 15 and made landfall near Yabucoa, Puerto Rico later the same day. After crossing Puerto Rico it reached hurricane strength on September 16 near the eastern tip of the Dominican Republic on the island of Hispaniola, but fell back to tropical storm strength later that day as it moved inland across the Dominican Republic. Jeanne continued to move slowly over the Dominican Republic on September 17 before finally leaving the island late that afternoon. By that time, Jeanne had declined one more level, to tropical depression strength.
On September 18, while the system was being tracked near Great Inagua, a new center formed well to the north-east and the previous circulation dissipated. The new center strengthened again, becoming a hurricane on September 20. Jeanne continued to meander for several days before beginning a steady westward motion toward the Bahamas and Florida.
Jeanne continued strengthening as it headed west, passing over Great Abaco in the Bahamas on the morning of September 25. Shortly after, it reached Category 3 strength. It maintained this intensity as it passed Grand Bahama during the remainder of the day. At 11:50 pm EDT September 25 (0450 UTC September 26), Jeanne made landfall on Hutchinson Island, just east of Stuart, Florida, at Category 3 strength. This is only a few miles (or km) from where Hurricane Frances struck Florida three weeks earlier.
Jeanne is the first major (category 3 or higher) storm to make landfall on the east coast north of Palm Beach, Florida and south of the Georgia–South Carolina border since at least 1899.
Current status
At 2 pm EDT on September 26 (1800 UTC), the centre of Jeanne was located 20 miles (32 km) southeast of Brooksville, Florida, and was moving northwest near 10 mph (16 km/h). Jeanne has weakened to a tropical storm with sustained winds of 70 mph (110 km/h).
Jeanne is expected to continue into Florida, then to briefly emerge over the Gulf of Mexico while turning north over the Florida Panhandle towards Georgia. As it weakens to a tropical depression over land, Jeanne's track is expected to curve to the northeast, bringing it over the Carolinas and southeastern Virginia before heading back out to sea.
Current watches and warnings
- Tropical storm warnings are in effect for:
- the west coast of Florida from Bonita Beach to Destin
- the east coast from St. Augustine to the Savannah River
Preparations
The weary citizens of Florida are on the move again:
- Mandatory evacuations began on Saturday Sept. 25 for vulnerable areas in Brevard, Broward, Duval, Flagler, Hardee, Hendry, Indian River, Marion, Martin, Miami-Dade, Okeechobee, Palm Beach, Pasco, St. Johns, St. Lucie, Sarasota, Seminole, Union and Volusia counties. However, news reports suggested that millions of Floridians had ignored the evacuation notices and stayed put.
- Voluntary evacuations apply to Alachua, DeSoto, Highlands, Osceola, Pinellas, Polk and Putnam counties
- On Friday September 24 the Kennedy Space Center closed to non-essential personnel. It was still undergoing repairs to damage caused by Charley and Frances.
- Yom Kippur began at sundown on September 24 and lasted until sundown on September 25; residents in the affected areas were asked to alert any Jewish neighbors who would be avoiding the use of electrical equipment (eg radios) during the solemn observation.
Impact
Most of the 4 million inhabitants of Puerto Rico were left without power, and 600,000 without running water. Landslides caused a large amount of damage to the exotic vegetation in the Caribbean National Forest. Seven people were reported killed.
During its slow progress over the northern Dominican Republic, the storm damaged many homes in the town of Samaná. At least 18 deaths were attributed to Jeanne in this country.
Heavy rains totaling about 13 inches (33 cm) in the northern mountains of Haiti caused severe flooding and mudslides in the Artibonite region of the country, causing particular damage in the coastal city of Gonaïves, where it affected about 80,000 of the city's 100,000 residents. As of Thursday, September 23, at least 1,070 people are confirmed dead: 1,013 in Gonaïves, and 58 elsewhere in Haiti. [1] [2]. Many of the dead remain unburied and relief workers have begun burying bodies in mass graves in an attempt to avoid the spread of disease. Relief workers expect the total number of dead to rise even further, as at least 1,250 people are missing; some bodies may have washed out to sea and may never be recovered. The flooding occured well after the center of the storm had left Haiti, and outside the areas covered by storm warnings. [3]