Reply #16: 2.5 Million Told to Clear Out of Florida (Latest from Palm Beach Post)

[KoKo]

Hurricane Frances menaces Florida; 2.5 million people told to clear out

By TIM REYNOLDS
Associated Press Writer
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/gen/ap/FL_Hurricane_Frances_Florida.html

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Residents and tourists in cars, trucks and campers clogged highways along the state's Atlantic coast Thursday, fleeing inland as mighty Hurricane Frances threatened Florida with a second battering in three weeks.

About 2.5 million residents were told to clear out ahead of what could be the most powerful storm to hit Florida in more than a decade. Others in the 300-mile stretch covered by a hurricane warning rushed to fortify their homes with plywood and storm shutters, and to buy water, gas and canned food. "I've got half my house in my car," said Doris Johnson, a Stuart retiree who waited outside a shelter with her husband, carrying a pile of blankets, pillows, and water. "I just want it over with, and hope and pray no one gets hurt."

The evacuation is the largest in state history, surpassing the 1.3 million people urged to leave during Hurricane Floyd's near-miss in 1999, Gov. Jeb Bush said.Already a Category 4 storm with 140-mph winds and the potential to push ashore waves up to 15 feet high, Frances could make itself felt in the state by midmorning Friday. Its core, with the strongest winds, was expected to hit land late Friday or early Saturday.

At 5 p.m. EDT, the hurricane was centered 375 miles southeast of West Palm Beach and was moving northwest at close to 10 mph. Its top sustained winds dropped from about 145 mph earlier Friday, which forecasters believe is just a minor fluctuation typical with large storms.

This could be the first time since 1950 that two major storms have hit Florida so close together. On Aug. 13, Hurricane Charley splintered billions of dollars worth of homes, knocked out power to hundreds of thousands and killed 27 people when it tore across the state.

Charley's example — and Frances' tremendous size, covering an area the size of Texas — prodded people like Linda Silvestri, 58, to get out of the way. Silvestri, who lives in Palm Bay on the central Florida coast, headed inland to Gainesville to be near a hospital because she just received a kidney transplant.