Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne (2004): Landfall Dates and Palm Bay's Damage

Hurricane Frances hit Florida just after midnight on September 5, 2004, and Hurricane Jeanne hit around midnight on the night of September 25 to 26. Both came ashore at the same place, the southern end of Hutchinson Island near Stuart, about 60 miles south of Palm Bay. Frances was a Category 2; Jeanne, three weeks later, was a Category 3.

Storm	Florida landfall	Where	Strength at landfall
Frances	About 0430 UTC September 5, 2004 (12:30 a.m. EDT)	Southern end of Hutchinson Island	Category 2, 90 knots (about 105 mph), 960 mb
Jeanne	0400 UTC September 26, 2004 (midnight EDT, September 25 to 26)	Southern end of Hutchinson Island, just east of Stuart	Category 3, 105 knots (about 120 mph), 950 mb

All of it comes from the National Hurricane Center’s reports on the two storms. Brevard County got the full federal response both times: it was named in FEMA’s major disaster declarations for Frances (declared September 4, before landfall) and for Jeanne (declared September 26), with both individual and public assistance. It was also in the August declaration for Charley and the September one for Ivan, which made four federal disaster declarations covering Brevard in a single season.

Frances, September 5

Frances had been a Category 4 near the southeastern Bahamas, then weakened to a Category 3 and finally a Category 2 as it crossed the islands. It slowed down over the Gulf Stream and weakened a little more just before landfall, then crawled west-northwest across the peninsula, finally coming out into the Gulf near New Port Richey early on September 6. The slow motion was the problem. It meant hours of wind and rain for everywhere north of the center, Palm Bay included.

The NHC report lists 7.27 inches of rain at Palm Bay. The National Weather Service office in Melbourne estimated a storm surge of about 6 feet around Cocoa Beach and 8 feet near Vero Beach. Space and military facilities around Cape Canaveral reported more than $100 million in property damage on their own. The NHC’s total for Frances, revised in 2011, is $9.5 billion.

Jeanne, September 25 to 26

Jeanne’s eye was about 50 nautical miles across when its center crossed the coast, and the NHC report puts Brevard in the path of its eyewall. The NHC report says the heaviest rain, a narrow band of 11 to 13 inches, fell along the eyewall’s track over Osceola, Brevard and Indian River counties. Hurricane-force sustained winds covered the coast from near Cape Canaveral south to near Stuart, a swath about 90 nautical miles wide.

The strongest sustained wind measured anywhere in the storm came from Brevard: 79 knots, about 91 mph, at the National Weather Service office in Melbourne, a few miles north of Palm Bay, at 0818 UTC on September 26, with the center some 45 nautical miles to the southwest. The tide gauge at Trident Pier in Port Canaveral measured a 3.8-foot surge, and the NHC estimates surge of up to 6 feet from around Melbourne south to Fort Pierce.

Jeanne killed three people directly in Florida. One was in Brevard County: a man drove his truck onto a flooded road, and the water carried it into a drainage canal, where he drowned.

Why two storms in three weeks hit so hard

Palm Bay sits on the mainland side of the Indian River, out of reach of the ocean surge that hit the barrier islands. That didn’t help much in 2004. Frances soaked the ground and tore at roofs, and Jeanne arrived only three weeks later with stronger winds and its eyewall rain falling on Brevard. A single storm of either size would have been a bad week. Two in a row, from the same landfall point, made 2004 the year Palm Bay still measures hurricanes against.

For Brevard’s longer storm record, from the 1920s through Matthew and Irma, see the Old Space Coast hurricane history. For 1979’s Hurricane David, see Old Titusville.

Further Reading

• Florida’s Hurricane History by Jay Barnes
• Florida: A Short History by Michael Gannon