Massive Florida clean-up after fourth hurricane strike

People lined up for food and water while others searched in vain for generators in the sweltering heat as Florida residents began cleaning up all over again, demoralised by the fourth hurricane in six weeks to batter the state.

Hurricane Jeanne, with slashing winds reaching 120 mph, claimed at least six lives in Florida over the weekend as it ploughed through virtually the same area that was bashed by Hurricane Frances earlier this month.

Together, hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne have generated the biggest relief effort ever undertaken by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“I’ve stopped trying to assess which storm is worse than the other,” Governor Jeb Bush said yesterday. “They are all powerful, they all wreaked havoc in our state and they all stink. They are all past the threshold of bad.”

Florida is the first state to get pounded by four hurricanes in one season since Texas in 1886. Two months remain in the 2004 hurricane season.

At the only Home Depot in one coastal town, 75 people broiled under a cloudless sky as they waited for tarps, gas cans and other supplies to begin repairs. In a separate line, 25 people waited for generators.

“My wife kicked me out until I came back with a generator,” said Wayne Keller, who had a generator for Frances, but sold it once power was restored. “She wants to kill me. She’s not in a laughing mood.”

The store did not have any. Keller had been waiting four hours on the promise that a shipment of 300 was on the way.

The store itself was in need of repairs, had no air conditioning and was running on generator power. Only five people were allowed in at a time, and buckets placed throughout caught water as it dripped from the ceiling.

President George Bush yesterday asked Congress for more than $7.1bn (€5.8bn) to help Florida and other South-eastern states recover.

The unprecedented relief effort includes more than 5,000 FEMA workers spread over 15 states.

Nearly 3,800 National Guardsmen were providing security, directing traffic, distributing supplies and keeping gas lines orderly.

In Florida alone, relief workers have handed out at least 16 million meals, 9 million gallons of water and nearly 27 million kilograms of ice over the course of the four storms, state officials said.

Florida citrus growers lost about half of their grapefruit crop during Frances. And with the ground soaked from previous storms, trees toppled more easily this time. Fruit was scattered throughout groves.

Orlando’s theme parks closed for the third time this season during Jeanne, and many hotels along the Atlantic coast were heavily damaged.

Earlier, Jeanne caused flooding in Haiti that killed more than 1,500 people. The storm weakened after ploughing across Florida, but brought heavy rain and fierce wind to the already-soggy South.

In Georgia, the storm’s remnants toppled trees, washed out dozens of roads and left more than 76,000 residents without power at its height. A handful of coffins also were washed up in Folkston, when flooding hit a cemetery there.

Tornadoes spawned by the storm also destroyed buildings in South Carolina, and in North Carolina, a windstorm in Southern Pines damaged more than 100 buildings and reportedly flipped cars and toppled trees and power lines, according to the Moore County Sheriff’s Department.

About 2.3 million people in Florida had no electricity because of Jeanne. Nearly 47,000 people in north-western Florida were still without power in the area hit by Ivan.

Charley hammered Florida’s south-west coast August 13, Frances blanketed much of the peninsula as it crawled through Labour Day weekend and Ivan blasted the Panhandle when it hit September 16. The three storms caused billions of dollars in damage and killed 73 people in Florida alone.