Jeanne (by HanKFranK) By Greenwich time Jeanne hit on this date, although locally the landfall occurred just before midnight on September 25. The storm made landfall in essentially the same place that Frances had three weeks earlier, very close to Stuart, FL, and brought hurricane force winds to many of the same areas. Jeanne was a category 3 storm, with winds at landfall estimated at 120MPH and a minimum pressure at 950mb. It caused 6.5 billion in U.S. damage, and only 5 direct deaths. Like its predecessors Jeanne spawned numerous tornadoes as it went inland, although they totaled at only 41. It was the fourth hurricane to bring hurricane force winds to Florida that year, and its center passed extremely close to Fort Meade, FL in the center of the state, just like the tracks of Charley and Frances had.
The real legacy of Jeanne is the tremendous mudslide it caused at Gonaives, Haiti on September 17, as it was weakening from interaction with Hispaniola. The deforested slopes above the town gave way, and the ensuing mudslide buried or drowned around 3000. This made Jeanne the deadliest Atlantic tropical cyclone since Mitch in 1998.
