Floods, floating coffins left in Jeanne's wake
More help needed in storm-ravaged Florida
 | |
| |
|  VIDEO |
 Cleanup and relief efforts are in full swing in hurricane-weary Florida.
 Hurricane Jeanne's waves ate away the coastline in Satellite Beach, Florida.
 A look back: Four hurricanes slam Florida in the state's worst-ever storm season.
|
RELATED |
• Peacekeepers rush to Haiti
|
| RAINFALL TOTALS | Georgia:
Valdosta --- 5.38 inches
Atlanta --- 3. 31 inches
South Carolina:
Greenville -- 3.83 inches
Florida:
Ocala --- 6.89 inches
Orlando --- 4.17 inches
|
|
(CNN) -- The remnants of Hurricane Jeanne moved north Tuesday, leaving collapsed buildings, flash floods and floating coffins in its wake.
The Associated Press reported two deaths in South Carolina were blamed on the storm and said coffins had washed to the surface at a south Georgia cemetery.
Leaving a staggering swath of destruction, Jeanne poured heavy rain into the southern Appalachians and mid-Atlantic states Tuesday. Tornadoes were reported across the South.
Jeanne, now a tropical depression, was moving northeast into Virginia, dumping as much as 12 inches of rain.
In Virginia, Patrick County Sheriff David Hubbard told the AP a victim was found downstream from her home after floodwaters washed it from its foundation.
Flood and flash flood warnings were in effect for parts of central North Carolina, southwestern Virginia and eastern West Virginia.
Flood and flash flood watches continued for portions of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delmarva Peninsula, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York.
Maximum sustained winds were about 30 mph, with higher gusts.
In South Carolina, a man died after being thrown from his mobile home by an apparent tornado near Ridgeway, and a dozen others were treated at a hospital, The AP reported.
Another man was killed when his car went off a slick road near Winnsboro, South Carolina, the AP reported.
In North Carolina, the AP said buildings appeared to have been knocked down by at least six possible tornadoes. Cars were flipped and trees and power lines were down.
At Mount Mitchell, about 30 miles east of Asheville, North Carolina, along the Blue Ridge Parkway, the National Weather Service reported 4.75 inches of rain.
In Southern Pines, more than 100 buildings were damaged, according to initial reports from the AP.
Meanwhile, relief continued to flow into Florida and authorities said more was needed.
Power could take weeks
Jeanne was the fourth hurricane to make landfall in the state in six weeks, about 1.6 million customers remained without electricity. Utility officials said it could be as long as three weeks before all of the power is restored.
"We'll get most on," said Florida Power & Light spokesman Chuck Cain, "but to the last person, it will take that long."
Cain said help from other states "has been a little slow coming" because those other states still are dealing with the effects of their own bouts with Jeanne, or with Hurricane Ivan, which rambled through Alabama and into the Appalachians before slipping back down into the Gulf and then hitting Texas as a tropical storm.
"The utilities that we normally get contractors and line people from are still recovering from those storms themselves, and so, as they recover, we'll start to see the influx," he said.
Florida's worst problem appeared to be flooding. Officials in Osceola County, just south of Orlando, said they got 20 inches of rain as the storm passed, inundating areas already flooded from previous storms.
Some rivers, including the St. Mary's near MacClenny, the Suwannee at White Springs, the Withlacoochee at Trilby and the Peace at Fort Meade, were at four to five feet above flood stage -- and more water could be expected, both from the skies and from swollen streams upstream in Georgia.
Georgia power utility officials said about 52,700 customers still were without electricity, mostly in the southern part of the state where tropical storm force winds blew the storm in from Florida.
One Georgia official told the Associated Press the initial damage estimates from Jeanne were three times as bad as those from Hurricane Frances.
Gov. Sonny Perdue declared a state of emergency.
The area around the Okefenokee Swamp in Charlton County was hard hit. The AP said roads were washed out and trees were down.
In Folkston, Georgia, the AP said coffins popped out of the ground when flooding hit a cemetery. Valdosta, in south Georgia, reported more than 5 inches of rain Monday.
Jeanne left its mark
Jeanne made landfall late Saturday with 120-mph winds near the southern end of Hutchinson Island, 5 miles southeast of Stuart on Florida's east coast -- near the site of Hurricane Frances' landfall Sept. 5.
The storm collapsed beachfront homes and ripped off roofs on a barrier island near Vero Beach in Indian River County. Concrete utility polls snapped at their bases, leaving power lines in the streets.
Jeanne is the first major hurricane to make landfall between West Palm Beach and the Savannah River for as long as records have been kept. The storm initially knocked out power to about 2.6 million customers, state Secretary of Environmental Protection Colleen Castille told reporters on Monday. That was about the same number as Frances and Charley, which made landfall at Punta Gorda on the Gulf Coast -- almost directly opposite the Frances/Jeanne landfall point -- on August 14.
Florida law enforcement officials told CNN at least six people had died as a result of Jeanne -- significantly less than the numbers killed by the previous hurricanes.
A couple drowned when their SUV plunged into a manmade Lake in Deerfield Beach; a pickup truck driver drowned after he drove into a flooded ditch in Palm Bay; a 15-year-old boy was killed by a falling tree along the St. Johns River; a Miami man was electrocuted by a downed power line; and a 60-year-old Brevard County man was found dead in his flooded home after a hurricane party.
Florida officials said Charley killed 27, Frances killed 32 and Ivan killed 23 (more than 50 nationwide).
Risk Management Solutions, a catastrophe-modeling firm that works for the insurance industry, estimated Sunday that Jeanne could cause between $4 billion and $8 billion in insured losses in the United States. (Full story)
Haiti death toll climbs
The Haitian government Tuesday said more than 2,400 people are either missing or dead a result of Jeanne, which swept across the country September 18.
An official with the country's Department of Civil Protection said the number of confirmed dead is 1,514 and the number of missing is 952.
Dieufort Deslorges, the head of the disaster relief section of the department, said almost 300,000 people's homes have been damaged or destroyed and 2,601 people were injured in the storm.
The United Nations rushed hundreds more peacekeepers to storm-ravaged Gonaives to stem looting, while hundreds of weary Haitians lined up for food. (Full story)
Copyright 2004 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
