Jeanne batters Florida coast

Hurricane Jeanne lashed Florida’s Atlantic Coast early today with 120mph winds and drenching rains, putting the weather-weary state in the record books.

The Category 3 storm became the fourth to pummel Florida in a single hurricane season, something that has not happened since 1886 when Texas was the target. The three other hurricanes – Charley, Frances and Ivan – all hit within the last month and a half, about midway through the June-to-November season.

Jeanne came ashore shortly before midnight near the southern tip of Hutchinson Island, about 5 miles (8kms) southeast of Stuart. Just three weeks ago, Frances ravaged the same area.

Emergency management officials were waiting until daylight to assess damage. The previous hurricanes caused billions of dollars in damage and killed at least 70 people.

Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Centre in Miami, said the proximity of Jeanne and Frances was the “first time ever that we know of” that two hurricanes landed so close in place and time.

Jeanne was expected to make a turn to the north over central Florida and stay inland over Georgia and the Carolinas through Tuesday.

Earlier, Jeanne tore across the Bahamas, leaving some neighbourhoods submerged under 5 feet (1.5m) of water. No deaths or serious injuries were reported there, but the storm was earlier blamed for more than 1,500 deaths in floods in Haiti.

Jeanne followed Charley, which struck on August 13 and devastated southwest Florida; Frances, which struck on Labour Day weekend; and Ivan, which blasted the western Panhandle when it made landfall in nearby Alabama on September 16.

The storms caused billions of dollars in combined damage and killed at least 70 people in Florida alone.