Millions of Floridians told to evacuate
Frances downgraded, could reach Florida on Friday
 |  This satellite image taken at 11:15 p.m. ET shows hurricane Frances as it approaches the Florida coast. |
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| ON CNN TV |
 Watch for updates on Hurricane Frances, including regular reports from the National Hurricane Center.
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 The latest on Hurricane Frances.
 Getting an emergency kit together for Hurricane Frances.
 Pinpointing a hurricane's landfall remains difficult.
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| HURRICANE FRANCES | 11 p.m. ET Thursday
Position of center: About 355 miles (570 kilometers) east-southeast of lower Florida east coast
Latitude: 24.5 north
Longitude: 75.4 west
Top sustained winds: Near 125 mph (201 kph)
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ST. AUGUSTINE, Florida (CNN) -- Florida residents in the path of Hurricane Frances boarded up their homes and jammed highways and airports Thursday to escape the massive storm.
Some 2.5 million people are in evacuation areas, Gov. Jeb Bush said. He declared a state of emergency in advance of the Category 3 storm.
The storm was downgraded from a Category 4 to a Category 3 hurricane late Thursday night, as winds decreased from 140 mph (220 kph) to 125 mph (205 kph).
"Don't read too much into that because that's still a very dangerous Category Three hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale," said Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami. "We may well gain some of that strength back in the next 24 hours."
Hurricanes are classified as categories 1 to 5 on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale. A Category 3 storm has winds of 111 to 130 mph (178 to 209 kph).
The eye of the hurricane was 330 miles (530 kilometers) east-southeast of Florida's lower east coast and about 25 miles east-southeast of Cat Island in the Bahamas, moving west-northwest at about 10 mph (17 kph). The storm is expected to move forward at a slower speed in the next 24 hours as it passes over the Bahamas.
Parts of the Bahamas are still under a hurricane warning. (Full story)
Forecasters said the storm could begin lashing the southeast Florida coast Friday afternoon with strong winds and heavy rain, but the full brunt of the storm would likely be a few hours later.
Up to 20 inches of rain was possible, said Mayfield. He predicted "massive power outages" over the Florida peninsula.
The National Hurricane Center issued a hurricane warning Thursday for most of Florida's east coast, from Florida City north to Flagler Beach.
Mayfield said meteorologists still don't know exactly where the storm will make landfall, "but everything we see says we have a good hurricane track forecast."
"Those strong winds and heavy rain will go rolling across the peninsula," he told reporters Thursday night.
Frances threatened to be much more dangerous than Hurricane Charley, which killed 25 people, Ed Rappaport, the center's deputy director, said.
"This is a much bigger storm than Charley was, maybe two to three times the size," Rappaport said. "There'll be a large area of damage when this comes ashore."
Rappaport said that Frances was also a larger storm than Hurricane Andrew, the devastating Category 5 storm that crushed South Florida in 1992.
"It is likely to be a much wetter storm than Andrew was," he said. "One reason is that it's bigger than Andrew and another is that it's more slowly moving."
A hurricane watch and tropical storm warning are in effect for the middle and upper Florida Keys from south of Florida City to the Seven Mile Bridge.
Floridians securing homes
Floridians lined up for dwindling supplies to secure their coastal homes before being ordered to leave.
"The earliest we're going to see significant impact from the storm appears to be Friday afternoon, but people should not wait," said state Emergency Management Director Craig Fugate. "It's time to act."
Fourteen Florida counties have mandated evacuations. Nine more counties have yet to set evacuation times.
Hospitals and schools in the areas have been shut down and evacuated, and hotels are rapidly filling. Officials also suspended tolls on highways and bridges that will be used for evacuations.
Col. Chris Knight of the Florida Highway Patrol reported traffic flowing smoothly but said he expected it to worsen as the storm approached.
"We are prepared to one-way the Beeline Expressway [connecting the coast to Orlando], if it's necessary, for about a 15-mile stretch," he said. "It depends on how much the backup is on I-95 in Brevard County."
Knight said the patrol also had contingency plans to make Interstate 10, carrying traffic west from the Jacksonville area in North Florida, one way if needed.
Because of the storm, the Treasury Department was urging Florida banks Thursday to let certain customers draw on their Social Security benefit checks a day ahead of time, The Associated Press reported. (Full story)
State still recovering from Charley
Florida is still recovering from the effects of Charley, which slammed into Charlotte County on the Gulf Coast August 13, then crossed the state and headed into the Atlantic near Daytona Beach.
The last time two major storms -- Category 3 or above -- hit the U.S. mainland in the same year was in 1950 with Hurricanes Easy and King.
Tropical Depression Nine has formed in the North Atlantic about 560 miles southwest of the Cape Verde Islands. It is heading west at 16 mph (26 kph) and is expected to stay on that course for the next 24 hours. The storm has maximum sustained winds of 30 mph (45 kph).
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
