Florida Orders 2.5 Million Residents to Evacuate Atlantic Coast As Hurrica

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Florida Orders 2.5 Million Residents to Evacuate Atlantic Coast As Hurricane Frances Approaches

Jennie Amsel, 104, far left, and Patricia Henkel, third from left, are helped to awaiting ambulances that will evacuate them from a Miami Beach, Fla., assisted living facility, Thursday, Sept. 2, 2004, by unidentified workers. More than a million people threatened by Hurricane Frances were told to evacuate Thursday (AP Photo/Bill Cooke)
09-02-2004 2:22 PM
By TIM REYNOLDS, Associated Press Writer

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PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- Residents and tourists in cars, trucks and campers clogged highways Thursday in the biggest evacuation ever ordered in Florida, fleeing inland as mighty Hurricane Frances threatened the state with its second battering in three weeks.

About 2.5 million residents were told to clear out ahead of what could be the most powerful storm to hit Florida in a decade. Other people in the 300-mile stretch covered by the hurricane warning rushed to fortify their homes with plywood and storm shutters, and buy water, gas and canned food.

Already a Category 4 storm with 145-mph winds and the potential to push ashore waves up to 15 feet high, Frances could make itself felt in the state by midmorning Friday.

At 2 p.m. EDT, the hurricane was centered 410 miles southeast of West Palm Beach and was moving at close to 13 mph.



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[Nambe]

1. I just read that a lot of them are putting it off.

Maybe they are ready for it.