High Wind in Polk, Florida

Hurricane Frances made landfall just after midnight on September 5th near Vero Beach as a Category 2 storm. The hurricane continued to move slowly west northwestward across central Florida to near Bartow by 2 pm, and just northeast of Tampa by 8 pm, when it was downgraded to a tropical storm. It then emerged back into the Gulf of Mexico near Hudson shortly before midnight. Hurricane Frances took almost 24 hours to move through the Florida peninsula. Frances continued northwestward through the northern gulf of Mexico, making a second landfall on the afternoon of September 6th in the Florida big bend near Tallahassee as a tropical storm. The damage totals listed were caused by trees downed on homes and overland and river flooding. In Polk County there were four indirect deaths reported; two were separate incidents of people falling off of a roof while cleaning storm debris and two FEMA contract employees were killed when their aircraft clipped a tower and crashed while they were spraying for mosquitoes due to excessive standing water from Hurricane Frances. In Highlands County there was one indirect death of a man falling off his roof while cleaning storm debris. In Sumter County there was one indirect death of a man by carbon monoxide poisoning from a generator running inside his home. The damage total listed was estimated by doubling the insured losses unless otherwise noted. The doubling accounts for uninsured losses and damage to the public infrastructure. Flood damage was included within these totals because it was not possible to extract the information from the available data.