Bahamas bears brunt as Jeanne heads for US

WITH Florida firmly in its sights, Hurricane Jeanne bore down on the Bahamas with violent winds and drenching rains last night threatening more destruction on islands still recovering from Hurricane Frances.

Jeanne was strengthening to a major hurricane and began to lash parts of the northern Bahamas last night before heading for Florida. The Bahamian capital, Nassau, on Providence Island, and the second city of Freeport, on Grand Bahama island, are in the threatened zone.

Frances killed two people and damaged thousands of homes when it tore through the Bahamas three weeks ago. Particularly hard-hit was Freeport, where some with heavily damaged homes are still living with relatives or neighbours.

Frances toppled rows of power lines, flattened homes and uprooted trees during a prolonged two-day lashing of Grand Bahama.

Electricity has been restored to half the homes on the island of more than 70,000 people, and last week officials declared the water supply safe to drink, said Harold Williams, a Freeport city councillor.

"We're right in the middle of trying to restore everything," Mr Williams said. "Now here it is, we have another hurricane that's pending, so we've geared up to get back in the mode of hurricane preparedness."

He said emergency shelters were being prepared in schools and churches, and officials planned to discuss possible evacuations.

Residents were stocking up on supplies such as batteries and storm shutters.

In Nassau, work crews were still cutting up trees toppled by Frances, and some plywood shutters remained up on homes, while businesses were operating as normal and tourists stepped off cruise ships for brief visits.

Last night, Jeanne had sustained winds of about 105mph and forecasters said it could turn into a major hurricane. They warned the storm would stir up dangerous surf and rip currents.

The National Hurricane Centre in Miami said Jeanne could drop up to 10 inches of rain along its path in Florida. Parts of the state are already waterlogged, and flooding could again be a major problem there.

Fears of flying debris and power cuts sent shoppers scurrying to grocery and hardware stores for supplies that had run low before the last storms. State and federal officials geared up for another disaster response.

A hurricane watch was issued yesterday for most of the state's eastern coast, from Florida City to St Augustine. Jeanne could hit just over a week after Hurricane Ivan thrashed the state. Ivan and its predecessors, Charley and Frances, caused billions of dollars of damage and were blamed for at least 70 deaths.

The only other time four hurricanes have been known to hit the same state in one season was in Texas in 1886, the National Hurricane Centre said.