Hurricane Jeanne was a surprise hit. While Jeanne was wandering up north into the Atlantic, Ivan was passing between Cuba and the Yucatan Pennisula. Suddenly, it looped back down south and then headed due East right for us. Furthermore, it was as big a hurricane as Frances, but it was not as strong (at first). Hurricane Frances downgraded as it came towards us in early September (from a category 5 to a category 2), now Hurricane Jeanne was strengthening as it came closer (from a category 1 to a category 3). And, because it was moving faster than Frances did, we did not have the same liesurely time to prepare for it.

Since Ivan was now out of the way, we took down many of our storm shutters, but, we had left them prepared to put back--just in case. We began preparing on Friday, had Saturday to finish with the winds getting pretty strong, and finally Hurricane Jeanne was upon us later Saturday afternoon and all evening into Sunday.

We won't take you through the storm tracks like we did with Frances, but we will give you an idea of what it is like to pass through the eye of a major hurricane.

This is a satellite photo of Hurricane Jeanne with the outsides of the coasts of Cuba, the Bahamas and Florida drawn in.
The news from Thursday, September 23 showed that Hurricane Jeanne was heading right for us. At one point, they said that one scenario took it northward just off the coast, but as time passed, it became increasingly clear that it was headed for us. The estimated landfall varied from Saturday to Sunday, but this basically only gave us two days to get ready. From the storm path on the right, you can see the estimated wind speed picking up. By the time it actually made landfall, it had slipped up into the Category 3 range at 130 mph.

The square-looking county just to the west (left) of the eye of the hurricane is Indian River County and we live on the top center of that county just under the long slender county, on the north of which is Cape Kennedy/Cape Canaveral.
So, we parked the cars again so as to protect the leanto on the south side of the shed, and also protect the cars.	As the winds picked up, even the cats staked our their observation points. When the winds got heavier, they simply crawled underneath the solar shed, where the pipes laid below the stairs they are sitting on at this point.
Before the winds got too heavy, we were able to get some shots of some of the hurricane bands already circling around us.	From the back of our house facing west, you can notice the winds whipping about the queen palm trees. The antenna is still situated atop its tower above the Card house. It would be gone after the hurricane.
As the hurricane winds made it impossible to stay outside, we hunkered down on Saturday, September 25. As we observed the news, we realized that the hurricane was getting increasingly stronger. There were some indications of winds gusting up to 150 mph. As a consequence, we fully shuttered every aspect of our house concerned that we were now facing an even stronger hurricane than Frances. The picture above is taken a few hours before landfall. The blue area to the right is the eye of the hurricane. In the upper left hand part of the screen, you will notice Vero Beach, Disney Resort and Fellsmere. We are just 3 miles north of Fellsmere. This was the only shot we got where Fellsmere was identified on the TV screen. The direction of the wind is north-north-west.
Saturday evening, finally, the power went down again. (We lost our power the day before Hurricane Frances on Sept. 5. It was restored again on Sept. 14. Now again on Saturday, Sept 24, we lost it again, not to be restored until October 4.) After we battened down both houses, leaving all of the people in the Donnan's house (the stronger one), we had time to relax and take in a meal.	The weather channel was the channel to watch. Again the wind is north north west. Sebastian, in the upper left hand side of the screen is just 15 miles due east of our place. Sebastian suffered serious damage, as the northern part of the eye wall struck it on Sunday, September 25.
In this doppler taken from TV, you can see Vero Beach and Melbourne above it in the upper left part of the picture. If you notice the county line above the "V" in Vero Beach, that is about exactly where our place is located. It was with this kind of precision and accuracy that we are able to identify the exact weather features of Hurricane Jeanne and know when we could expect to be hit. In the meantime, numerous tornadoes were reported in the area and the conditions that spawned them could be easily seen on doppler radar. Nancy Donnan became the doppler expert, Kimarie handled the children, and Dave and Geoff took care of last minute security efforts and tried to sleep.	This picture was taken on Sunday, September 25,at 1:37 a.m. (upper right part of screen). You can see from the radar that the hardest hit areas are now between Vero Beach and Melbourne. We are in the center of that area awaiting the actual eyewall itself to pass over.

It is at this point that the some narrative is necessary. This was perhaps the most difficult night that any of us had spent for many years. With the exception of a few of the youngest kids, who sprawled out and slept on the carpet just in front of the safe room, the rest were either trying to sleep in the safe room or watching the TV from the Donnan's bed.

Unlike Hurricane Frances, the Donnan's one house cat (five are out and one is in) was howling throughout the peak of the hurricane for perhaps 5 hours. She could not sleep nor sit still, but just paced around and around howling the whole time. As a consequence, no one could sleep because of the howling.

However, the howling of the cat was overshadowed by the howling of the wind. During this peak time, the winds sounded absolutely horrific outside. We heard things hitting our house, but nothing (thankfully) hitting the roof because the trees that dropped branches on the roof during Hurricane Frances were now down. But the wind sounded like a freight-train. The mere sound of it gave us all concerns at the time. We later recognized that the winds had only reached 130 miles per hour sustained with higher gusts, and there was not the slightest tremors in our house. We don't know what it would have sounded like in the Cards house next door, because no one was there. As it turned out, most of the winds were coming from the north, meaning that the Donnan house (built to 140 mph wind codes) was sheltering the Card house (built to only 110 mph codes).

It was not until about 5-6 that we began to see the winds abate and the noise die down. The cat ceased its howling and we began to get some sleep. About 8 a.m., we decided to taken down the first door (one that is well sheltered) and see what it was like outside. Perhaps this is what Noah must have felt like (in some small way) when he opened the windows of the ark.

We will continue this story by the describing the aftermath of Hurricane Jeanne in the next report.

Go to the Report #6 by clicking below:

6. HURRICANE JEANNE
Aftermath -- September 25-October 4, 2004

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