HURRICANE REMNANTS A weakened Jeanne soaks the South
Hurricanes have devastated Florida's economy.
COMBINED DISPATCHES
Jeanne, downgraded from a hurricane after cutting a swath of destruction through Florida, steered north Monday evening as it spawned tornadoes and flash floods across the Deep South.
The weakened weather system was expected to move into the mid-Atlantic states today.
Heavy rain from the fringes of Jeanne, which weakened to a tropical depression as it dragged inland, flooded low-lying areas, uprooted trees and loosened the earth at a cemetery in south Georgia, washing coffins from the ground.
Buildings and other property were damaged by winds whipped up by tornadoes Monday in parts of the Carolinas, and thousands of Georgia households were without power.
Hard-hit counties
Two counties -- Charlton and Lowndes -- appeared to be among the hardest hit areas in Georgia, the state Emergency Management Agency said Monday.
Jeanne washed out dozens of roads, damaged a courthouse roof and downed trees in Charlton County, which includes much of the Okefenokee Swamp.
A handful of coffins also were washed up in Folkston, Ga., when flooding hit a cemetery there.
In South Carolina, forecasters said the fringes of Jeanne could produce treacherous rip currents and beach erosion along the coastline.
No injuries had been reported early today in North Carolina, where Gov. Mike Easley declared a state of emergency and activated National Guard troops for storm response.
"If you live in an area that is prone to flooding, the best thing to do is to get out," said Tim Miller, western coordinator for the North Carolina Emergency Management Office.
Impact
In this, Florida's devastating year of four hurricanes, the owners of pricey beachfront estates, yachts, golf course apartments and middle-class homes have taken a material beating totaling billions of dollars -- not to mention the damage done to the tourism and agriculture industries.
But "the impact that we are seeing on the poor, it's just beyond imagining," said Margaret O'Brien-Molina, a public information officer for the American Red Cross.
"These people were poor before, but there were shelters, places for them to go," O'Brien-Molina said from a shelter in Daytona Beach. "Now there is nothing."
As a result of the hurricanes, tens of thousands of Floridians no longer have jobs: 16,474 filed disaster-related unemployment claims after Charley; 22,948 after Frances and 4,206 after Ivan, said Warren May, director of communications for the state Agency for Workplace Innovation.
On Monday, the agency was just beginning to accept jobless claims from Jeanne, the hurricane that struck before midnight Saturday. "Clearly these storms have had a tremendous impact," May said from Tallahassee.
The recent succession of storms also has trampled Florida's citrus industry, which traditionally has provided jobs for many black residents of Fort Pierce.
The situation could be even more dire for Florida's migrant agricultural laborers, many of whom are in the country illegally.
What's next
A weak Tropical Storm Lisa was in the open Atlantic on a track today that threatened only ships.
At 5 a.m. EDT, Lisa's center was about 1,100 miles east-northeast of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. It was moving north near 8 mph, and was expected to keep heading in that general direction for the next few days.
Lisa is the 12th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which ends Nov. 30.