East coast damage as Frances threatens the Panhandle
Utility workers in southern Florida rush to restore power.
A family riding out Frances in a motel hopes their home survives the weather.
Gallery: Fearsome Frances
More mega-hurricanes on horizon
| TROPICAL STORM FRANCES |
 |
MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- As the remnants of Tropical Storm Frances moved from the Florida Panhandle into south Georgia Monday night, Floridians began the task of cleaning up behind its trail of destruction.
Frances battered much of the Florida Peninsula for up to 30 hours over the weekend, crawled into the Gulf of Mexico and moved back ashore on the northern coast Monday afternoon. It is expected to bring heavy rains as it continues northward.
Now Floridians are watching Ivan, a Category 2 hurricane swirling east of the Caribbean but on a path forecasters said could bring it to south Florida by the weekend.
If so, it would be the third hurricane to hit the state within a month. Hurricane Charley hit the southwest coast with Category 4 force and raced across the state in mid-August.
Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, said Ivan should be east of Cuba by Friday, then move south of the island nation and stay there before threatening Florida's southeast coast.
Mayfield said it is extremely unusual for a state to see three storms in such a short span.
The last time three storms hit Florida within a six to eight-week period was 1964 when hurricanes Cleo, Dora and Isabelle slammed the state.
Authorities said Frances claimed six lives in the state -- three in Alachua County, two in Gadsden County and one in Lee County -- and two in the Bahamas.
Two of the dead in Florida were a grandson of Florida State University football coach Bobby Bowden and the coach's former son-in-law. They were killed in a traffic accident. (Full story)
Estimated insured losses from the storm ranged from $2 billion to $10 billion, according to three insurance risk management companies, AIR Worldwide, Risk Management Solutions and EQECAT.
Mayfield warned that more deaths are likely from the storm as residents return to their homes.
The biggest threats include carbon monoxide poisoning to people using generators; traffic accidents, because lights are not working; fires from lighting candles; chainsaw accidents and inland flooding.
"Most people actually lose their lives from the inland freshwater flooding," Mayfield said. He warned that people too often try to drive through high water and drown.
As of 11 p.m., Frances had been downgraded to a tropical depression and was centered about 30 miles southwest of Albany, Georgia.
It was moving north-northwest at nearly 12 mph (19 kph) with maximum sustained winds of near 35 mph (56 kph), down from 65 mph (104 kph) when it made landfall 20 miles south of Tallahassee near the Panhandle town of St. Marks, the center said.
Forecasters predicted that Frances would dump 6 to 10 inches (15 to 25 centimeters) of rain in an area centered approximately along the Alabama-Georgia border through Tuesday.
"This is going to be a rainfall all through the week here as it spreads into the Appalachians," Mayfield said.
Frances was so large that at one point it obscured nearly the entire state on satellite views.
"It's the largest tropical storm we've ever had," Florida Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings said. "It's engulfed the entire state. This is going to be a while to get back to normal."
Much of the state was under tornado watches at one point or another during the day. State meteorologist Ben Nelson said radar systems recorded numerous funnel cloud formations.
Fallen trees blocked roads and power lines were down across the state. Flat and low-lying areas were flooded.
Power companies said service was steadily being restored. State officials said electric meters off-line at one point represented more than 6 million people. Fifty-seven of Florida's 67 counties were affected by power outages.
Convoys of utility crews and relief workers carrying supplies started heading for hard-hit areas as early as Monday morning.
"We're bringing in food, water, and the medical teams and urban search-and-rescue teams to have a massive response," said Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown, traveling with Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to view the aftermath and assess damage.
President Bush was scheduled to visit hard-hit areas Wednesday.
Forty-seven counties issued evacuation orders covering all or parts of their areas, the largest evacuations in Florida's history.
More than 74,000 people were in 295 shelters Monday afternoon. Shelters were also open in Georgia and South Carolina.
Frances ripped roofs off stores and homes, flattened gas station canopies and slammed moored boats against one another up and down the Atlantic coast after coming ashore Saturday evening near Stuart, about 70 miles south of Melbourne. Palm trees bent nearly horizontal in the wind.
At that point it was a Category 2 hurricane with 105 mph winds. By Sunday evening, it had become a tropical storm, crawling across the state with sustained winds around 70 mph.
At Fort Pierce -- 20 miles north of Stuart -- the city's new marina was reported heavily damaged, and dozens of boats and yachts were smashed into the walls.
A Fort Pierce police sergeant said officers had battled against looting and traffic accidents all night. By morning, he said, police called for assistance from the National Guard.
With the storm gone, concerned boat owners showed up at the marina at first light, the sergeant said, ignoring authorities' pleas to stay home, and picked their way over the damaged docks to check on their boats.
Police and National Guardsmen ordered the owners off the docks and sealed the area with yellow police tape.
In the Orlando area, nine people were arrested on looting charges.
Hurricane Ivan, a Category 2 storm reported at 210 miles (335 kilometers) east-southeast of Barbados east-southeast of Barbados, could hit Florida in another four days.
Hurricane warnings were in effect for Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, The Grenadines, and Grenada and its dependencies.
As of 11 p.m. ET Monday, Ivan was centered at near latitude 11.2 north and longitude 57.2 west and moving west at about 21 mph (33 kph) with sustained winds of near 105 mph (165 kph).
The hurricane lost some of its potency as it plowed toward the Lesser Antilles, but forecasters said it had the potential to regain strength by Tuesday morning.
Its projected path places Ivan slicing through the Dominican Republic and potentially hitting Florida.
