2008 Woodie Awards
Harrowing hurricanes hammer east coast
Matt Alfieri
Issue date: 10/14/04 Section: News
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I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house down. In Florida, not even houses large buildings made of bricks could escape the wrath of the Big Bad Wolf.
Fifty-two days. Five storms. Four Hurricanes. One hundred seventeen people dead. Millions left homeless. $41 billion estimated in property damage.
This is the legacy left this summer in the southeastern United States by Tropical Storm Bonnie and hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne. This summer served as a record-setting hurricane season thus far, despite the fact that we still have a month and a half until November 30 marks the end of hurricane season. However, these records were not meant to be broken. When Florida was hit with four hurricanes within two months of each other, it marked the first time four hurricanes have hit one state in a single season since four hurricanes hit the Texas coast in 1886, according to the National Weather Service as provided by the Weather Channel.
Tropical Storm Bonnie began hurricane season 2004 by dumping heavy rain in the Florida panhandle and spawning tornadoes as far north as Virginia. This proved to be just a sample of things to come.
Barely a week into cleaning up the flood damage left behind by Bonnie, Hurricane Charley hit southern Florida as a
category five hurricane, with
maximum sustained winds of 145, reported by the Weather Channel. Making landfall just west of Fort Myers, Hurricane Charley devastated the state of Florida to the point that President Bush declared a state of emergency, which led to the evacuation of two counties, including Mytle Beach, according to Wikipedia Encyclopedia. All in all, 27 deaths in Florida, countless injuries, and $14 billion in property damage (estimated by the National Hurricane Center, abbreviated NHC). This would become the United States' second most costly hurricane, behind 1992's Hurricane Andrew
16 days later, Frances struck. Although not as severe, Frances still resulted in 32 deaths $4 billion in property damage as assessed by the National Hurricane Center. While the damage was highly concentrated in Florida, flood damage was widely dispersed throughout the southeastern and Mid-Atlantic United States.
Fifty-two days. Five storms. Four Hurricanes. One hundred seventeen people dead. Millions left homeless. $41 billion estimated in property damage.
This is the legacy left this summer in the southeastern United States by Tropical Storm Bonnie and hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne. This summer served as a record-setting hurricane season thus far, despite the fact that we still have a month and a half until November 30 marks the end of hurricane season. However, these records were not meant to be broken. When Florida was hit with four hurricanes within two months of each other, it marked the first time four hurricanes have hit one state in a single season since four hurricanes hit the Texas coast in 1886, according to the National Weather Service as provided by the Weather Channel.
Tropical Storm Bonnie began hurricane season 2004 by dumping heavy rain in the Florida panhandle and spawning tornadoes as far north as Virginia. This proved to be just a sample of things to come.
Barely a week into cleaning up the flood damage left behind by Bonnie, Hurricane Charley hit southern Florida as a
category five hurricane, with
maximum sustained winds of 145, reported by the Weather Channel. Making landfall just west of Fort Myers, Hurricane Charley devastated the state of Florida to the point that President Bush declared a state of emergency, which led to the evacuation of two counties, including Mytle Beach, according to Wikipedia Encyclopedia. All in all, 27 deaths in Florida, countless injuries, and $14 billion in property damage (estimated by the National Hurricane Center, abbreviated NHC). This would become the United States' second most costly hurricane, behind 1992's Hurricane Andrew
16 days later, Frances struck. Although not as severe, Frances still resulted in 32 deaths $4 billion in property damage as assessed by the National Hurricane Center. While the damage was highly concentrated in Florida, flood damage was widely dispersed throughout the southeastern and Mid-Atlantic United States.