TALLAHASSEE - Gov. Jeb Bush begged Florida residents Friday morning not to let their guard down after Hurricane Frances weakened overnight to a Category 3 storm, stressing that the downgrade means little in terms of potential destruction.
"It isn't good news. Category 3 storms are powerful storms," Bush said. "A hundred-twenty five miles an hour winds compared to 145 miles an hour winds, if we were standing out there testing them, I bet we couldn't tell the difference."
Friday morning Frances' top sustained winds were down to 120 mph from 145 mph but still had the potential to push ashore waves up to 14 feet high. Forecasters said the weakening could be fluctuation typical with large storms and Frances could regain its former strength.
In fact, Frances' slight weaking and slowdown in forward movement actually increases its destructive capability, Bush and other state officials said. The slower movement means that hurricane-force winds will rake Florida's communities for a longer period of time, and increase the amount of rainfall the already-saturated state will see.
"The winds will be battering the state longer," said Craig Fugate, director of the state's emergency management division. Unlike last month's Hurricane Charley, which crossed the state rapidly thus avoiding major flooding, Frances has the potential to flood out entire communities as was recently seen in Richmond, Va., from Tropical Storm Gaston, Fugate said.
"In Charley we were talking inches of rain, in Frances we are talking feet of rain," Fugate said. Some predictions have between 10 and 20 inches of rain falling on parts of Florida.
At 8 a.m. EDT, the hurricane was centered 250 miles east-southeast of West Palm Beach and was moving west-northwest near 9 mph. Hurricane-force winds extended up to 85 miles from its center - a swath five miles wider than when it was a Category 4 storm.
The storm's uncertain track - and its breadth - makes it difficult for state and federal officials to plan where to stage distribution centers for the recovery, Bush said. He has already asked governors of 17 other states to waive weight and size restrictions for trucks that will be bringing aid and supplies to Florida. Those states include Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Illinois, Mississippi, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Alabama, Georgia, West Virginia and Missouri.
"There's going to be a lot of work needed to make a massive response," Bush said.
Florida's major roads, following Thursday's congestion that at times crawled along at 10 mph, had mostly cleared by Friday morning, state officials said. Bush hailed that as a sign that residents in mobile homes and coastal and low-lying areas were heeding the state's advice not to travel too far to find a safe place to weather the storm.
"Most people are staying in their own communities, which is exactly what they should be doing," Bush said.
Frances' slowdown buys a little more time for people to evacuate, but in many parts of southeastern Florida gas stations have already been pumped dry, and the storm separates most of the those gas stations from their international suppliers, Bush said. Still, the slowdown also gives American suppliers a chance to race to Florida to refuel the gas stations, he added.
"We're working to get fuel where it is needed," Bush said.
Bush and other state officials also said now is the time for residents to think about what they will do immediately following the storm, when power lines, some of them live, and debris will create extremely hazardous conditions until crews can clear them away.
"Once the storm passes, don't let your kids go out and play in the water," Bush said.
More people died in accidents, including electrocutions, in the aftermath of Charley than in the actual storm, including two more deaths that were reported Friday. One was an elderly man who committed suicide and the other was a construction worker who fell off a house, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
"The storm is only the beginning of the hazard," Fugate said.
Meanwhile, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is mobilizing three times as many disaster relief workers for Hurricane Frances as it did for Hurricane Charley last month.
FEMA director Michael Brown said he's put out calls for emergency crews from as far away as Seattle and Oregon. He expects to have about 4,500 personnel assisting with recovery efforts in Florida after Frances hits land.
An additional 1,500 staffers will continue their work with victims of Charley, which devastated parts of the state's western coast just three weeks ago - killing at least 27 people and causing billions of dollars in damage.
"We have not had, in a long time, a double whammy of a hurricane like this," said Brown.
- Information from the Associated Press was included in this report.
