20 years ago Florida was hit with 4 hurricanes in a row: Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne

C. A. Bridges, USA TODAY NETWORK - Florida
·4 min read
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As we anticipate an active 2024 hurricane season, it's also a time to look back at previous stormy summers. Such as the one 20 years ago when Florida was pounded with four powerful, punishing hurricanes one right after the other.

The storms were directly or partly blamed for 145 deaths in the United States and responsible for more than $50 billion in damages (approximately $83.3 billion today) in just over six weeks of widespread destruction and misery.

The hurricane season of 2004 saw four hurricanes make landfall in Florida, Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne.
The hurricane season of 2004 saw four hurricanes make landfall in Florida, Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne.

Here’s a look at Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne.

Hurricane Charley

The first was Hurricane Charley, smacking into the southern peninsula near Port Charlotte on Aug. 13, as a Category 4 hurricane. At its peak intensity, Charley achieved wind speeds up to 150 mph, making it one of the strongest hurricanes to ever hit the United States.

Charley moved slowly across the Caribbean but quickly across Cuba and Florida, which mitigated some of the potential damage. But Floridians were caught off-guard by its path, which jogged south at the last minute. Charley came ashore near Punta Gorda, rather than the expected Tampa area, and tore across the state to exit near Ormond Beach.

  • Damage: $16.9 billion

  • Deaths: 35. Directly, 1 in Jamaica, 1 in Cuba, 9 in Florida and 1 in Rhode Island. Indirectly, 20 more in Florida.

Hurricane Frances

Just over three weeks from Charley's landfall, Frances hit. The Category 4 hurricane weakened as it trashed the Bahamas and struck Florida on Sept 5 near Jensen's Beach as a Category 2. It traveled up and across the state, wreaking havoc as it went, and exited into the Gulf of Mexico as a tropical storm before gaining strength again, curving around and hitting Florida again in the eastern Panhandle.

Inland structure damage included 15,000 houses and 2,400 businesses in Palm Beach County, according to the National Weather Service, and millions of dollars of crop damage. The storm indirectly contributed to at least nine deaths in Florida. The slow-moving storm brought heavy rains through the eastern U.S. and into Canada and flooding to Florida and North Carolina.

  • Damage: $10.1 billion

  • Deaths: 50

Hurricane Ivan

Hurricane Ivan became a Category 5 hurricane three times as it moved from the Windward Islands through the Caribbean, bringing massive damage and loss of life to the region. Ivan didn't make its initial U.S. landfall in Florida but when it crashed into Alabama on September 16 as a Category 3 hurricane the long-lived storm tore up the western Peninsula on its way to rampaging across the eastern United States. Then it circled back around to hit us again as a tropical storm and cross South Florida back to the Gulf of Mexico. Ivan caused an outbreak of 117 tornadoes over three days, including 18 in Florida.

One tornado near Panama City Beach resulted in one death and seven injuries, another near Blountstown resulted in four deaths and one injury, and a third killed two people in Panama City, according to the National Hurricane Center. Ivan left a path of destruction in its wake, causing parts of the Interstate 10 bridge to collapse into Pensacola Bay and essentially leveling Perdido Key. Thousands of homes were damaged or destroyed.

  • Damage: $26.1 billion

  • Deaths: 124

Hurricane Jeanne

But the deadliest hurricane in 2004 was Jeanne.

Even as "just" a tropical storm, Jeanne destroyed large parts of Guadeloupe and Puerto Rico (where eight people were killed) with wind, rainfall and flooding while Ivan was still terrorizing the Gulf Coast. Heavy rains in the mountains of Haiti caused extreme flooding and mudslides that nearly wiped out the coastal city of Gonaïves. The official report on Oct. 6 listed counted 3,006 people dead, with 2,826 of those in Gonaïves alone. Thousands more were injured. More than two dozen people were killed in the Dominican Republic.

Jeanne strengthened into a hurricane and meandered around in a loop passing over the Bahamas and smacking into Florida on Sept. 26 at roughly the same place that Frances had hit just three weeks before. It followed Frances' path almost exactly until it swung north into Georgia, leaving millions without power (again), destroying homes and spawning tornadoes. Three people died in Florida due to Jeanne.

  • Damage: $7.94 billion

  • Deaths: 3,037

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Florida hurricanes: Looking back at 2004's deadly summer of storms