Massive hurricane smothers Florida
The center of the Texas-sized storm made landfall at about 1 a.m. EDT (0500 GMT) on Sunday near Sewall's Point, Florida, on the Atlantic coast about 100 miles north of Miami, the National Hurricane Center said.
The hurricane had roared onto the coast, from which 2.5 million people had been told to flee, late on Saturday after pounding the Bahamas for two days.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Frances promised to dump torrential rain on the Florida peninsula for up to 15 hours, in what emergency officials said could be a "marathon" of anxiety and devastation as the storm moved across the state.
Winds reached 105 mph (170 kph), and the slow-moving storm picked up some speed as it marched inland at about 8 mph (13 kph).
In Florida's central Atlantic coast counties, blinding rain squalls drove clouds of sand into the air while huge whitecaps thundered onto the beaches. Palm trees rained coconuts and then toppled over as the eye wall, the most powerful area of the storm bordering the calm eye, moved ashore.
In hard-hit Palm Beach County, boats broke from their moorings and were dragged by the wind until they snagged on bridges or other obstacles. Power lines snapped and sparked while lightning illuminated blacked-out beach towns and flood waters submerged cars in low-lying parking garages.
The hurricane covered much of the state. Forecasters said the storm's huge eye could take 12 hours to pass, and they warned people not to take false comfort in the respite as the brutal second half of the storm approached.
"People do need to be very careful when those winds do slacken off in the eye. We've still got the back side to deal with," said National Hurricane Center director Max Mayfield.
President Bush on Saturday declared Florida "a major disaster" and ordered federal aid to make grants and loans available in five coastal counties in Central Florida: Brevard, Indian River, Martin, Palm Beach and St. Lucie.
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