Thank goodness that Jeanne didn't
cause more damage here, or there may have been nothing left
at all. Jeanne was the fourth hurricane to hit the state of
Florida in 2004.
Jeanne formed as a tropical depression east-southeast of
Guadeloupe on the evening of September 13. Having strengthened to a
tropical storm, Jeanne crossed Puerto Rico on September 15. It then
moved toward Hispaniola, barely reaching hurricane strength before
making landfall on September 16. It tracked slowly across the
northern coast of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, its heavy rains
bringing mudslides and flooding. Jeanne's unusually slow journey
was actually caused by a weakening Hurricane Ivan. Ivan broke up a
trough that was fueling Jeanne's steering currents. Interaction
with Hispaniola caused it to degenerate into a tropical
depression.
After wreaking havoc on Hispaniola, Jeanne struggled to
re-organize. However, it eventually began strengthening and headed
north. After performing a complete loop over the open Atlantic, it
headed westwards, strengthening into a Category 3 hurricane and
passing over the islands of Great Abaco and Grand Bahama in the
Bahamas on September 25. Jeanne made landfall later in the day in
Florida just 2 miles (3 kilometers) from where Frances had struck 3
weeks earlier. Building on the rainfall of Frances and Ivan, Jeanne
brought near-record flood levels as far north as West Virginia and
New Jersey before its remnants turned east into the open
Atlantic.
Jeanne is blamed for at least 3,006 deaths in Haiti with about
2,800 in Gonaïves alone, which was nearly washed away by floods and
mudslides. The storm also caused 7 deaths in Puerto Rico, 18 in the
Dominican Republic and at least 4 in Florida, bringing the total
number of deaths to at least 3,025. Final property damage in the
United States was $6,800,000,000, making this the eighth costliest
hurricane in U.S. history.
Hurricane Jeanne
Duration: Sep. 13 - 28, 2004
Highest winds: 120 mph (195 km/h)
Total damages (in USD): $6.9 billion+
Total fatalities: 3,035+ (mostly in Haiti)
Areas affected: U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Dominican
Republic, Haiti, Bahamas, Florida; flooding and damage in other
eastern U.S. states
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This cache was placed by a member of the
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