Deja Vu All Over Again!

Jeanne Follows in Frances' Footsteps

In a cruel twist of fate, Hurricane Jeanne virtually mirrored the track of Hurricane Frances, exactly three weeks later. There was one primary difference: Jeanne moved at a steady 12 mph through the central Florida peninsula, limiting the duration of inclement weather to 24 hours. This pace reduced the storm total rainfall, while allowing stronger sustained winds and peak gusts.

Winds

The stronger winds produced more widespread minor to moderate damage to poorly constructed structures and mobile/manufactured homes than with Frances, especially across Polk and Highlands Counties. Elsewhere, damage was about the same, consisting of mainly blown down tree limbs and power lines, hundreds of uprooted shallow-rooted trees, and peripheral damage to residences and businesses, including lost roof shingles, stripped siding, fascia, and soffits, and scattered damage to carports and roofs within mobile home parks. In some areas, there was a cumulative effect of damage from both Frances and Jeanne.

Power outages were widespread across the peninsula once again; as with Frances, at least 2 million customers lost power sometime during Jeanne's passage. Total insured storm damage will once again be in the billions of dollars.

In west central and southwest Florida, gusts were highest in Polk and Highlands Counties, but also along the immediate Gulf coast from Pinellas to Citrus County.

Rainfall and Flooding

Jeanne's rains (Top right, above) were somewhat less across west central and southwest Florida than with Frances, primarily due to the storm's pace. The area of steady, heavy rain was concentrated near the center of circulation, and feeder bands on the back (south) side lasted less than 10 hours, compared with up to 24 hours behind slow-moving Frances over portions of the Nature Coast.

Unfortunately, another 6 inches of rain fell into the Withlacoochee River basin, swelling the already moderate-flooding river and threatening all time floods of record. Similar rainfall in the upper reaches of the Peace River basin (Polk County) reinforced already high values, with stage values in Bartow approaching the record set days after Frances passed. Other rivers in west central Florida flooded, but not to the extent as they had with Frances. The table below shows stage data for selected rivers in west central Florida.

As of this writing, significant areal freshwater flooding was confined to Polk County, which received the highest storm total precipitation (6 to 10 inches, in general). Urban flooding was common in the Tampa Bay and Sarasota/Bradenton metropolitan areas.

Coastal Flooding

Coastal flooding was more of a nuisance with Jeanne than with Frances, whose duration of southwest winds produced more widespread problems from the Tampa Bay area northward, and Ivan, which induced significant beach erosion on the Suncoast's barrier islands. Minor flooding was noted at Cedar Key (Levy County), where tides switched from more than 4 feet below normal to more than 3 feet above normal hours after the winds shifted, and along the northern Pasco County coast near Hudson, where high tides were up to 3 feet above normal.

A bit surprising was minor coastal flooding in Charlotte and Lee Counties, a result of persistent northwest winds of at least 25 knots overnight on the 25th building up water in Pine Island Sound and the lower portion of Charlotte Harbor, only to be pushed onshore when the winds veered to the west at tropical storm force on the 26th. Approaching high tide produced 2 to 4 feet of surge on Sanibel Island (bayside), St. James City, and the west end of Fort Myers Beach. Similar flooding was reported along the Charlotte County coast.