Millions in Florida Ordered to Flee Huge Hurricane

Nearly 2.5 million people were ordered to seek shelter inland in the state’s largest evacuation ever as Hurricane Frances, a monstrous storm with sustained winds of 125 mph, set a course to ravage Florida over Labor Day weekend.

If the storm continues along its projected path, Frances will make landfall Saturday along the populous southeast coast, perhaps between West Palm Beach and Fort Pierce, then head through the state north to the Florida Panhandle, Georgia and Alabama.

Frances is threatening just weeks after Hurricane Charley devastated the state’s west coast, killing 27 people and causing billions of dollars in damage.

Frances, which had been as forceful as Charley, weakened late Thursday, although meteorologists said that it could regain strength as it makes its way toward Florida.

Frances is twice as wide as Charley -- roughly the size of Texas -- with hurricane-force winds stretching 80 miles to either side of its eye. The National Weather Service issued a hurricane warning for 300 miles of coastline stretching from Florida City, near Miami, north to Flagler Beach, near Daytona Beach.

Frances is a Category 3 hurricane on the five-step intensity scale, meaning sustained winds are blowing at 111 to 130 mph. The last time two major storms hit the state in succession was 1950, when Hurricane Easy struck Tampa and Hurricane King battered Miami six weeks later. Those storms were smaller than Frances and Charley, which was a Category 4.

“Having two hurricanes this large hitting only three weeks apart is nearly unprecedented,” said Michael Coyne, a National Weather Service meteorologist based in Fort Worth.

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue each declared a state of emergency, which will free state funds and federal relief money.

Florida officials Thursday ordered the complete evacuation of six counties on the Atlantic coast, from Palm Beach north to Brevard County. Mandatory evacuation notices were issued in low-lying areas and mobile home parks in four counties, including Miami-Dade. Similar evacuation of low-lying areas is set to begin today in at least three additional counties, a spokeswoman for the Florida State Emergency Response office said.

A coastal storm surge of 6 to 11 feet above normal tide levels is expected when Frances makes landfall.

The sun beat down Thursday on South Florida, sending temperatures into the 90s, but winds blustered and seas swelled. Traffic was snarled on coastal freeways as people headed inland.

Plastic bags covered gas pumps drained of fuel. Schools closed. Sports teams postponed games. And people lined up for hours in often fruitless hunts for supplies such as water, batteries and flashlights.

James Williams, 48, a landscaper, queued up at 6 a.m. at a Home Depot in Lake Worth, looking for plywood to shutter a client’s windows. Four hours later he discovered the plywood was long gone, so he bought the closest thing he could find -- sheets of plasterboard flooring.

At his apartment, Williams said, the landlord hadn’t made plans to shutter the windows, so Williams was going to hide in the closet when the storm hit.

“I’m really nervous,” he said.

Bill Mason, a 72-year-old retiree from nearby Greenacres, wasn’t yet convinced that the storm would reach the area. He bought bolts and 2-by-4s to buttress his garage door, just in case.

If the storm does arrive, he said, “I’ll just sleep in the bathroom.”

Officials in Palm Beach County warned homeowners to remove anything that might turn into a projectile in the high winds, including coconuts. Candidates from Tuesday’s primary elections were asked to collect their placards from lawns.

In Briny Breezes, a Palm Beach County trailer park so expansive that it has its own ZIP Code, Cheryl Bond hung out the yellow “Vacated” sign officials require during mandatory evacuations. But she hadn’t quite finished packing the Coachman mobile home where she has lived for the last year.

When asked about the possibility of losing her home, Bond replied: “I have faith in the good Lord.”

About seven miles to the north, Hartley Peavey directed a small crew to remove the remaining leather furniture and artwork from his oceanfront mansion. The musical-instrument mogul, whose neighbors include boxing promoter Don King and musician Yanni, gazed out the window at the rising surf, then pressed a button that slid heavy aluminum storm shutters into place.

“We just think we can outdo Mother Nature,” he said, standing in his sunken living room. “This will be a tidal pool.”

At the Hilton Palm Beach Oceanfront, maintenance crews cleared the outdoor Flip Flop’s bar. They wheeled away carts of liquor bottles, unbolted televisions from their ceiling mounts and stacked wicker furniture in the lobby.

“Get everything from the outside in,” said general manager Mike Wurster, who then sent most of his staff away to prepare their homes.

Elsewhere in the state, employees at Ocean Shutters Manufacturing Inc. in Fort Lauderdale in Broward County were running two roll-forming machines virtually around the clock to make corrugated steel panels to bolt over customers’ windows.

“Charley was not a blessing,” said Sis Smith, the sales manager. “However, it provided tremendous awareness to the rest of the state of just how awesome a hurricane can be.”

At Cape Canaveral, the Kennedy Space Center was evacuated. Workers raised the three shuttles’ landing gears, latched the doors, covered them with plastic and left the spacecraft in a hangar.

“People at [the space center] were devastated after the loss of Columbia and Challenger,” said spokesman Michael Rein. “They pour their heart and soul into caring for these spacecraft. At this point, it’s in Hurricane Frances’ hands.”

In Orlando, authorities were still grappling with mountains of debris left over from Charley. On Wednesday, 146 trucks roamed the streets scooping up tree trunks, root-balls, branches and construction materials to burn before Frances hits, said Public Works Director Alan Oyler.

The approaching hurricane brought some Republicans scrambling back to the state. Dozens of supporters of President Bush fled the Republican National Convention In New York early Thursday to prepare their homes for the storm. They missed the president’s acceptance speech.

“We’ll watch him on TV. We still had three days of good times,” said Justin Sayfie, a Fort Lauderdale lawyer. “Trust me, when you see a ... hurricane ready to barrel down on your state, you forget about politics.”

As Frances rumbled across the Caribbean, the hurricane clobbered the low-lying Turks and Caicos Islands for 15 hours Wednesday with winds over 120 mph. Minimal damage was reported to businesses, resorts and 19th century clapboard houses.

“We were very, very lucky,” said Jackie Mulligan, spokeswoman for the National Museum on Grand Turk.

On Providenciales, the most developed of the British-ruled islands south in the Bahamas, visitors and local business people banded together to wait out the storm, grilling chicken and drinking rum punch to keep spirits lively, said Debby Aharon, a ticket agent with Turks & Caicos Airways.

The mood was more somber on Grand Bahama, where the brunt of the storm was expected to hit overnight Thursday.

Bahamas Prime Minister Perry Christie on Wednesday night warned citizens on national television that the hurricane threatened to cause the greatest damage ever seen by the tiny island.

In Freeport, Grand Bahama’s capital, Greg and Patty Howe said they planned to leave their waterfront home for higher ground.

“We’re packing up the house like we’re not going to come back to it,” Patty Howe said, “because it probably won’t be here.”

Times staff writers John Glionna in Orlando, John-Thor Dahlburg in Fort Lauderdale, Ellen Barry in Atlanta, Carol J. Williams in Kingston, Jamaica, and researcher Lianne Hart in Houston contributed to this report.