Hurricane Charley

First Atkins, then Charley and Frances. With Florida's $9.1 billion citrus fruit industry already reeling from years of overplanting, competition from imports and the low-carb craze, the recent back-to-back hurricanes destroyed more than a fifth of the state crop and will likely mean higher prices for consumers in the coming weeks. The latest blow, a double whammy that battered the state from the west coast and then from the east, swept through at least two-thirds of the fruit-growing land over three weeks.

Several retailers missed the first bus for the back-to-school shopping season, posting weak August numbers as everything from higher gasoline prices to Hurricane Charley prompted consumers to stay away. Even brawny Wal-Mart Stores Inc. registered its most lackluster numbers in more than three years. The world's biggest retailer, which already had toned down expectations for August, squeezed out a 0.5 percent rise in sales in stores open at least a year. Analysts polled by Thomson First Call expected a 1.5 percent increase.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. cut its August sales forecast yesterday because of Hurricane Charley and sluggish demand for back-to-school products. The world's largest retailer said U.S. sales will be little changed or increase by as much as 2 percent, which would be the smallest gain in 17 months. Sales at 200 locations were hurt when Hurricane Charley hit Florida on Aug. 13, Wal-Mart said in a recorded phone message. Slowing sales at Wal-Mart, which accounts for 5.5 percent of U.S. retail revenue, may indicate consumers are trimming spending in general, said analyst Eric Jemetz of Rockefeller & Co., a New York investment house with Wal-Mart shares among its $4 billion in assets.

Sue Taylor's family of five was supposed be flying to the Bahamas today, but she didn't see the point -- what with Hurricane Frances whirling in from the other direction. So the Taylors are staying put in Harford County for the Labor Day weekend. No swimming with the dolphins. No tanning on resort lounge chairs. No Caribbean celebration for 16-year-old Whitney, who had turned down a big birthday party in July in favor of a big vacation now. "Who wants to go to a tropical island with rough conditions and high winds?"

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.

KISSIMMEE, Fla. - The lights that flickered out during the violent passage of Hurricane Charley only came back on a week ago, blue tarps still cover holes in many roofs and haphazardly uprooted trees litter the sides of many roads. But Kissimmee has moved on from thinking about Charley to worrying about what could be a bigger, stronger storm - Hurricane Frances is moving inexorably through warm Atlantic waters on a path that could once again buffet this central Florida town with powerful winds and torrential rains.

TAMPA, Fla. - Hurricane Charley charged across the southern Gulf Coast and into Central Florida yesterday with sustained winds of 145 mph, killing at least three people, injuring dozens, leaving hundreds of thousands in the dark and driving a sea water surge into low-lying neighborhoods. The storm hit the west coast barrier islands between Fort Myers and Punta Gorda shortly before 4 p.m. as a Category 4 hurricane, making it the most powerful storm to strike Florida since Andrew lashed the Miami area in 1992, killing 43 people and causing more than $31 billion in damage.

Although hurricane victims typically die by drowning, more than half of the 31 people killed in Florida by Hurricane Charley last month died from trauma - in falls, auto crashes or the collapse of their homes, under falling trees, or when they were struck by flying debris - according to state public health officials. Only one of Charley's victims drowned, a finding that runs sharply counter to data showing that drowning was responsible for more than 80 percent of U.S. hurricane deaths over the past three decades.

As the second major hurricane in less than a month continued to bear down on Central Florida, residents counted the hours until landfall with a tumult of activities and emotions. "My mood? My mood is cautious," said William M. Vail Jr., 45, manager of Woodlawn Funeral Home in Gotha, where cemetery machinery was moved inside, debris from the last hurricane swept up, and business suspended. This freed Vail to head home for the evening, make popcorn and watch the movie Jersey Girl with his wife, Jillian, and two cats.

Michelle Marvin couldn't sleep. The Ellicott City mother of two was out of bed Friday and glued to her television by 6 a.m. Hurricane Charley was moving up the west coast of Florida, and her daughters - Tory, 11, and Carly, 6 - were visiting their grandmother in Punta Gorda. Michelle called her mother-in-law, Mary Ellen Marvin, a few hours later to check on her and the girls. What's it like down there? she asked. The sky was blue and the sun was shining, Mary Ellen said. No sign of a storm.