An ominously "beautiful" Hurricane Frances churned across the Bahamas toward Florida last night with 140-mph winds -- the latest threat to the U.S. mainland from storms spawned during the busiest August of any recorded Atlantic hurricane season.
A half-million people were ordered to leave threatened counties on the southeastern Florida coastline today, only three weeks after Hurricane Charley raked the state's southwestern coast with 145-mph winds, killing 27 people and wreaking $7.4 billion in damage.
If Frances lands with the same energy as Charley, it would complete the worst double hurricane strike in the United States in at least a century.
Meteorologists say it's an extreme example of increased activity in the hurricane spawning grounds of the Atlantic that began in 1995. The number of major storms swirling out of the tropics has doubled since then, and scientists say the trend could continue for another 15 to 30 years.
Nature certainly appeared to be gathering its forces for a brutal blow yesterday.
`Andrew-strength'
Hurricane-force winds extended about 80 miles from Frances' center --about twice the size of Charley's. Wind and water conditions along the new storm's predicted path are nearly perfect, forecasters said, offering little to weaken Frances's fury before it reaches Florida this weekend.
"It is very likely to maintain its strength all the way in," said Jennifer Pralgo, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami. It could even strengthen to a Category 5 storm, with devastating winds of 155 mph or more.
"This is Andrew-strength, and Andrew was a lot smaller than this," Pralgo said. Hurricane Andrew crashed ashore in South Florida in August 1992 with Category 5 winds. It was the nation's costliest natural disaster, causing $26.5 billion in damage.
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush declared a state of emergency yesterday, activating the National Guard. In southwestern Florida, residents are worried about thousands of properties that were damaged by Hurricane Charley but remain unrepaired, covered by tarps or open and vulnerable to the new storm. Some streets are still strewn with storm debris.
Hundreds of thousands in the storm's path were told to leave low-lying coastal communities, barrier islands and mobile home parks. Those planning to stay waited in lines yesterday to stock up on water, canned food, batteries and plywood.
