APTN

Fort Pierce - 5 September 2004

1. Police cars on windy rainy street, traffic lights swinging wildly overhead

2. Policeman in orange mac directing traffic

3. Damaged building, driving rain

4. Roof which has blown off building lying in road, driving rain

5. Pan of roof on road

6. Various of boat blown into shore

7. Flooded ground, palm trees blowing wildly

8. Pan closer shot of blowing tress

9. Flooded road, lamp post bent over lying in water

10. Wide shot street with damaged lamp posts

Pool

Tallahassee - 5 September 2004

11. SOUNDBITE: (English) Thadeus Cohen, Secretary of Department of Community Affairs, Florida

"There's currently 337 shelters that are open on a statewide basis sheltering some 80-thousand individuals. We have an additional capacity of 78-thousand, a little bit more than that as far as beds that are available. In special needs there is 59 shelters that are open currently, sheltering more than 4,800 individuals. We have another capacity of 5-thousand for those. The National Guard, same as it has been with Charley, has been phenomenal in providing support. They currently have roughly 3,800 members on the ground being able to assist us as we start to mobilise ourselves to be ready to provide the mass care as we did for the Charley victims. We'll be doing the same kind of procedures that are in place currently as we start to provide those areas in which we then can move forward with typical aid that's going to be required."

APTN

Fort Pierce - 5 September 2004

12. Close up damaged boat

13. Various of boats

14. Bricks on ground, pull out to wide of harbour

15. Two grounded boats lying at drunken angle

16. Wide shot street, drain pumping out water from flooded underground drains

17. Various of damaged buildings

Hurricane Frances continued its rampage across parts of the Florida coast on Sunday, submerging roads and and tearing off roofs in its path, as the storm started to weaken and head inland, leaving more than 4 (m) million people without power.

Up to 28 centimetres (11 inches) of rain fell along Florida's central east coast and caused scattered flooding as a weakened Frances edged across the state towards Tampa.

It left behind fallen trees and downed power lines, tangled traffic lights and beachfront roads littered with coconuts, avocados and tree branches.

The storm was blamed for at least one death after a man was killed when his car hit a tree near Gainesville.

Earlier, at least two deaths were blamed on the storm in the Bahamas, where thousands were forced from their homes.

Initial reports of destruction in Florida did not rival the estimated 7.4 (b) billion US dollars (6.1 billion euros) in insurance claims for damage caused by Hurricane Charley in southwest Florida three weeks ago.

Frances' path took her across some parts of Florida already hit by Charley, which killed 27 people.

Florida Governor Jeb Bush and 20 state and federal emergency officials surveyed damage as they flew from Tallahassee to West Palm Beach, but the governor said it was too early to assess the extent of the devastation.

At least 100 National Guard troops were deployed and suspected looters were arrested in Palm Beach, Orange and Indian River counties.

Once a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 233 kph (145 mph), Frances slowed and weakened to a Category 2 storm as it neared Florida.

Winds receded to a peak of 169 kph (105 mph) before it made landfall in Florida at Sewall's Point, north of Palm Beach, around 1 am EDT (0500 GMT) on Sunday.

The storm weakened further on Sunday, with maximum sustained winds near 120 kph (75 mph), barely enough to rate it a hurricane.

The storm shut down much of Florida on the traditionally busy Labour Day holiday weekend.

The largest evacuation in state history sent 86-thousand people to shelters.