PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. – Midnight Thursday (technically Sept. 26 at 0400 Coordinated Universal Time) marks the tenth anniversary of Hurricane Jeanne making landfall as a Category 3 hurricane on the Florida east coast. Much of the Florida peninsula felt at least some impacts from Jeanne.
Jeanne produced heavy rain as it moved west-northwestward through the Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic as a tropical storm between Sept. 14th and 17th. Jeanne weakened briefly to a tropical depression as the center moved off the north coast of Hispaniola near the border of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, but then regained tropical storm status as it turned northward through the southeastern Bahamas on Sept. 18.
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Torrential rains occurred across much of Hispaniola. Some areas of Haiti, especially in Gonaives, were completely devastated from massive flooding and mudslides. Haiti's death toll is estimated at more than 3,000, including nearly 2,900 in the mud-crusted coastal city of Gonaives.
Jeanne strengthened into a hurricane on September 20 as steering currents changed, and it started moving slowly in a large clockwise loop about 500 miles east of the northwestern Bahamas. Jeanne was upgraded to a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale as it moved westward over Abaco Island and then Grand Bahama on Sept. 25. Jeanne made landfall near midnight in Florida at the southern end of Hutchinson Island just east of Stuart with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph.
Jeanne moved across central Florida and weakened to a tropical storm while centered just north of Tampa and then weakened to a tropical depression while moving northward across central Georgia on Sept. 27. The depression, still accompanied by heavy rain, moved over the Carolinas, Virginia, and the Delmarva Peninsula before losing tropical characteristics near the U.S. mid-Atlantic coast.
A storm surge of up to 6 feet above normal tides occurred along the Florida east coast from near Melbourne southward to Ft. Pierce. Inland impacts included widespread rain of up to 8 inches as Jeanne moved across eastern, central and northern Florida. A narrower band of 11 to 13 inches was observed over Osceola, Brevard and Indian River counties of east central Florida. A secondary rainfall maximum of around 11 inches was observed over northeast Florida.
Direct deaths included one in Puerto Rico, three in Florida, and one in South Carolina. The U.S. damage estimate was $7.66 billion in 2004 dollars (i.e., not adjusted for inflation). Jeanne was the fourth strong hurricane to hit Florida in 2004 (after Charley, Frances and Ivan). All four of these hurricanes are in the current top ten list of costliest mainland United States tropical cyclones (not adjusted for inflation).
This summary came from the Tropical Cyclone Report on Jeanne from the National Hurricane Center along with my recollections while working at NHC.