Photo Album: Hurricane News, 2004.
news: summary | Charlie | Frances | Ivan | Jeanne | acknowledgments
Station images: Frances | Jeanne  MAERC images: Frances | Jeanne
hurricanes 1948&1949 | photo album index

links to NOAA's National Weather Service Web pages
National Hurricane Center, Active Tropical Cyclones
National Hurricane Center, 2004 Tropical Cyclone Archive

Summary.

Archbold Biological Station.--No structural damage occurred at Archbold from either hurricane Charlie or Frances, but during Jeanne we did have roof damage at the Annex and Main Building and corollary water damage. At the Main Grounds, Frances snapped off some large, and many small, oak tree limbs with its maximum 50-60 mph winds, but tree damage was twice as bad with Jeanne. Total rainfall from the three hurricanes was 10.16 inches (Charlie--1.34, Frances--4.12, Jeanne--4.76). This 10.16 inches, included in the great amount of rainfall for August 2004 (17 in) and September (1-27, 14.42 in.) added to the flooding at the Main Grounds. After Charlie, Archbold was on generator power for 19 hours. After Jeanne, Archbold was on generator power for more than 7.5 days.

Archbold's generator, 30 Sept. 2004. Digital photo by Fred Lohrer.

Mac-Arthur Agro-ecology Research Center.--No structural damage occurred at the MAERC headquarters area from either hurricane Charlie or Frances, but Frances damaged some out buildings. Jeanne toppled more trees and did cause some damage to two staff cottages. After Frances, MAERC was without power for 4 days primarily because falling trees damaged electric lines at two places in the headquarters area. Jeanne downed many trees along the power line and MAERC was without power for 8 days. Hurricane rainfall, added to the great amount of rainfall for August and September 2004, helped maintain the greater-that-average, late-summer mosquito populations at MAERC headquarters, where any outdoor activity was unpleasant throughout most of September, except that mosquito numbers did taper off shortly before Jeanne. 

Hurricane Charlie, 13 August 2004. Late Friday afternoon, 13 August 2004, the eye of Hurricane Charlie passed over Arcadia, 30 miles west of Archbold, and caused great devastation to the rural towns of the Peace River valley. However, Charlie was not a large storm and at Archbold and at MAERC there was no structural damage. In the Lake Placid area, structural damage overall was minimal.  In the Lake Placid area, mature sand pines were blown over or snapped off at mid-trunk. Red maple was the other native tree that suffered damage. We saw no mature slash pines damaged by the storm. Archbold was on generator power for about 19 hours. Most people in the Lake Placid area were without power for 2-4 days.

Archbold weather report.--"On Aug 13, we received 1.34 inches of rain, experienced a low barometric reading of approx.29.75 in./hg and had gusts of wind up to 56 miles per hour. Between the hours of 4-7 pm our maximum wind speeds varied between 36- 56 miles per hour."--Nancy Deyrup, Education Coordinator, 16 August 2004.

MAERC weather report.--Hurricane Charlie, 13 August 2004: rainfall, 1.99 inches; average wind speed at 30 feet, 27 miler per hour.--Steven Hollingsed, MAERC Research Assistant.

Hurricane Frances, 3-5 September 2004.  

pre-hurricane message | post-hurricane report | Archbold weather report | MAERC weather report | hurricane shelter | damage report | water levels | a surprise visitor | bird reports | hurricane Frances images

Pre-hurricane message, Thursday, 2 September 2004.--Hurricane Frances is a large and powerful (Category 4) storm. Current predictions are for the eye to make landfall in the Ft. Pierce-Vero Beach area (about 70 miles east-northeast of Archbold) about 0800 Saturday morning, 4 September, and for the storm to continue moving N-NW reaching the Clermont area (Lake County) in north-central Florida by Sunday morning as a diminished storm (Category 1). Strong winds should reach Archbold sometime on Friday afternoon or early evening. However, no one is complacent about the exact path of the storm. If landfall is north of the current prediction, that is good for Archbold, if south, that is bad for Archbold. 

Today, Thursday, at Archbold, the overhead bronze doors of the Main Building are being freed from their decades-long stasis in the attic walls, and they will be closed on Friday before the winds increase. Station vehicles are parked at the northwest side of the Plaza to avoid falling trees. The water storage-tank is full, the generator has been tested, and everyone is in storm-preparation mode. Anyone staying in the cottages will be moved to the dormitory in the Main Building for Friday and Saturday. Also, on Friday, the FAX machine will be disconnected and the phones will by put on automatic emergency message.

Monday, 6 September is a holiday. If we are back at work on Tuesday, we will post hurricane news and photos on this Web page if our computer system is working. Otherwise, news will appear as soon as possible.

Post-hurricane report, Tuesday, 7 September 2004.--Hurricane Frances lingered over the Bahamas for almost a day, losing strength, and made landfall between Ft. Pierce and Palm Beach early Sunday morning, 5 September, as a weaker, Category 2 storm. The center of the slow-moving storm passed just north of Okeechobee before moving NW over Highlands Co., passing between Sebring and Avon Park about 25 Miles NE of Archbold at its closest point. Maximum winds in Highlands Co. were less than 100 mph and at Archbold, and in the Lake Placid area, maximum sustained winds were about 50-60 mph.  The storm passed just south of Lakeland, and exited the Florida peninsula just north of Tampa.

Archbold weather report.--"The Hurricane Frances stats so far are; barometric pressure down to 29.10 in. mercury, 4.12 inches of rain overall, and wind gusts of between approx. 37-57 mph for almost a full 24 hours."-- Nancy Deyrup, Education Coordinator, 7 September 2004. At Archbold's Main Grounds weather station wind speeds are measured at the top of a 40-foot mast, well above the shelter of the surrounding scrub vegetation. During the storm, Reed Bowman, Pat Bohlen, and Gene Lollis walked to the north-central portion of Archbold's Plaza and used a hand-held anemometer  to measure several wind gusts at over 70 mph. Rainfall at Eric Menges' house, just north of Sebring, was 8 inches.

MAERC weather report.--Hurricane Frances, 3-5 August 2004: rainfall , 3.07 inches; average wind speed at 30 feet, .41.13 miler per hour.--Steven Hollingsed, MAERC Research Assistant.

Damage report.--No structural damage occurred at Archbold or at the MacArthur Agro-ecology Research Center (MAERC) except for some minor damage to some outbuildings at MAERC and none was visible in the Lake Placid area on my drive to work on Tuesday morning. So far I have heard of no structural damage to Archbold employees' homes.

Area tree damage was minimal with most damage restricted to sand pine, red maple, and sweet bay among native trees. At Archbold the laurel oaks at Cottages 1 and 5, and near the dining room, each lost some large limbs, but without any roof damage. Many oak leaves and twigs littered the Plaza this morning and many downed oak branches make walking difficult around the water treatment plant.

Few if any, people in the Lake Placid area lost electrical power. Archbold lost 2 of 3 phases of power and so the generator was on for about 24 hours. However, MAERC lost power during the storm because a fallen tree damaged a power line between cottages 492 and 496, and MAERC was without power for 4 days after the storm. Likewise for telephone service to MAERC.

Water levels.-- Surface water levels had been high because of August's unusually high rainfall (see the August 2004 high-water page). The daily rains of early September and the hurricane rains increased water levels. Post-Frances, the water level in Archbold's Main Grounds ditch peaked about 7-8 September, when it was almost at the level of the road, but by Monday, 13 September, the level had dropped several inches. The standing water behind Cottages 4 & 5, and around the laundry house, began to drain off by the weekend (11-12 September).

A surprise visitor.--Mid-day Friday, 10 September 2004, Wade Ulrey, a vertebrate biologist from Univ. Kentucky, walked the short trip, across a now-flooded lawn, from the back door of Cottage 4 to the nearby laundry house. He saw a fish (about 10 inches long) in the shallow water and captured it. We identified it as a non-native species of armored catfish, Hoplosternum littorale, the brown hoplo. Positive identification is not certain yet, but littorale is the only Hoplosternum species recorded from Florida, so far (links; Gulf States Marine Fish Comm., Hoplosternum fact sheet & FFWCComm., Florida's non-native fishes). This is the first record of this species from the Station. Earlier, in 2002-3, Eva Hohausova collected several small individuals of this species about 2-3 miles west of us on the Reserve (see slide 5 of a PowerPoint file, Fishes at Archbold Biological Station). 

The Main Grounds ditch represents one of the the headwaters of surface-water drainages for the southern Lake Wales Ridge. The nearest natural permanent water to the Main Grounds is Lake Annie, 1.5 miles north, and the watery connection between the lake and the Main Grounds is not permanent. So far, 3 non-native, aquatic vertebrates have been collected from the Main Grounds ditch. The first was the bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana), then the walking catfish (Clarias batrachus) in 1980, and now the brown hoplo (Hoplosternum littorale) in 2004. This indicates the dispersal ability of non-native aquatic species in Florida.

Fig. 1. A total of 61 people stayed  at Archbold during the storm, using the general lab, library reading room, labs, offices, and dormitories. This included 50+ employees and their families, and several out-of-state linesmen contracted by Glades Electric Coop (see also Hurricane Frances images page). Digital photo by Reed Bowman, 5 September 2004.

Bird reports.--Every major storm brings coastal birds to interior Florida and during every major storm Florida birders scan the sky for storm waifs. Chris Valligny, Avian Ecology Lab, reported 2 Magnificent Frigatebirds over the Plaza on 4 September during the passage of an early hurricane feeder band and 2 Royal Terns over the Hill Garden on 5 September. Glen Woolfenden also reported a Royal Tern on 5 September from nearby Lake Grassy.

Hurricane Ivan, 10-13 September 2004.

Good news for us.--On Thursday, 10 September 2004, as Hurricane Ivan (now a category 4 storm) headed for Jamaica, the predicted path for peninsular Florida was all over the map, with Okeechobee, Lake Placid, Punta Gorda, and Tampa all variously predicted to be a target for the center of the storm.

However, all day Friday, 11 September, predictions were steady for the storm's path to parallel the Gulf Coast of Florida, but slightly off-shore. We all went home Friday with guarded optimism that we were not on the direct path of the storm. Nonetheless, Archbold was prepared. Plywood shutters (see Fig. 6) were installed on the west side of the Main Building for the 3 units without operable (west) storm doors (Library, Vertebrate Lab, Avian Ecology Lab). All other Main Building storm doors (see Fig. 5) were operable. The slight damage from Frances to the shingles on the Annex roof and the Rand Building was repaired (see Fig. 7). Storm procedures were in  place.

Over the weekend the storm remained very powerful but kept moving westward, and by Monday, 13 September, predictions for the storm's landfall on early Thursday morning had shifted westward from Apalachicola in the Florida Panhandle, to the Mississippi-Alabama border. It seems a certainty now that Peninsular Florida will not feel the  strong winds of Ivan.

Hurricane Jeanne, 25-26 September 2004.

weather report | water levels | wind damage | report from MAERC | storm shelter Archbold | hurricane Jeanne images

After meandering for a week in the Atlantic east of the Bahamas, Hurricane Jeanne gained strength and direction and began to move west toward southern Florida. The path of the storm across south-central Florida was similar to Frances (just 3 weeks ago), but passing closer to Lake Placid.

Late Saturday night (25 September), the eye of this large storm made a landfall (almost identical to Frances) between West Palm Beach and Fort Pierce as a Category 3 storm. The storm continued due west toward Okeechobee and at about 0200 Sunday morning, the television radar picture showed the storm’s eye halfway between Lake Placid and Okeechobee. Then our TV cable line went dead. Other people told me the TV radar later showed the storm’s eye about 10 miles north of Sebring and continuing northwest. In Lake Placid, The storm’s north winds continued for about 5 hours, beginning late Saturday night and continuing into Sunday morning, and they were stronger than either Charlie or Frances judging by how much my front-yard palms were bent in the wind, and by Sunday’s evidence. The winds eventually shifted to the west and southwest and the rain and gusts diminished early Sunday afternoon.

Archbold weather report.--Nancy Deyrup is on vacation, so this is my transcription and interpretation of the weather data collected by Marcia Rickey, Daniel Sattman, and Karen Glas. During Jeanne, the lowest barometric pressure on the hygrothermograph chart was 28.75 inches, total rainfall was 4.76 inches, and we cannot yet download the wind data although wind speeds were considerable, considering the damage (see below).

The Highlands County Emergency Management Office, Sebring, Florida, reported maximum sustained wind speeds of 97 mph, with gusts slightly over 100 mph, when the storm's eye passed by, just north of Sebring.

August and September, 2004, both had exception rainfall. The total rainfall for these two months was 32.3 inches, slightly more than 2 times normal. In August, Archbold had 17.88 of rain (monthly average is 7.4), and during September rainfall was 14.42 inches (monthly average is 8.36). The combined rainfall from September’s two hurricanes was 8.9 inches

Water levels.--After Jeanne, low areas of the Main Grounds are flooded again. Monday morning’s observations reveal; the lower garden is a lake, the laundry house is surrounded by water, and Shed Road in front of the tractor barn is flooded. The Main Grounds ditch is several inches over the roadway at each bridge. Tract 7, just west of the Main Building, remains flooded, and early on Sunday morning, Hilary Swain, reported that waves and white spray were washing over the railroad tracks in the strong winds as she watched from an attic window at the south end of the Main Building. (This may be the first time waves were seen breaking over the RR tracks since Office Manager Frank Rinald reported this on 23 September 1948.) About 24 hours later I noticed, from the north end of the Main Building, that the water level in Tract 7 was about 12 inches below the level of the tracks, and that there was a considerable flow northward in the flooded boundary firelane. Water levels were considerably lower on the east side of the tracks. At Lake Annie, where water levels were at the 12.8 mark on 9 September (about 2 weeks ago), Sunday’s water level was at 13.4. This is about 2.5-4.5 feet above normal (normal water levels range between 9 and 11.

Wind damage.--Archbold was on continuous generator power (with brief interruptions for engine maintenance) since the height of the storm (midnight, 25 Sept.) until 1700 on 30 September 2004 (+5.5 days), when we all noticed how quite the Main Grounds area was. However, transformer problems had us back on generator power for 2 more days (total +7.5 days). At the Main Grounds, Some large laurel oaks and slash pines were toppled, and many oak limbs and pine branches littered the ground. The Cottage 1 laurel oak lost another major limb and the dining room oak is now just a trunk, shorn of all remaining major limbs. None of these downed trees or limbs caused any roof damage to the cottages. The oaks have lost so many leaves that now the aspect is similar to late-winter when the oaks shed their leaves before the flush of new growth, and much sun reaches the understory. Needles on the slash pines near the south end of the Main Building now all point to the northeast, a reminder of the strong southwest winds.

The Annex was not so lucky. Many more asphalt shingles than in recent Hurricane Frances were blown off the 17-year-old roof, and the wind removed some aluminum soffits, and some insulation, at the north and west sides. The Main Building lost some cement shingles but had no major leaks in the labs or library. A west-facing attic window at the south end of the Main Building was blown open and allowed rain to come in and flood the office below. Rain came in under the kitchen west door, where there was 1.5 inches of water over the title floor. No leaks were reported from the Rand Building.

Report from MAERC.--The MacArthur Agro-ecology Research Center (MAERC) is 7 miles east of Archbold and probably was closer to the eye of the storm than was the Station. MAERC was without electrical power and telephone service for 8 days. Many trees were downed along the power line and they were removed by Ranch Manager Gene Lollis to allow access by the linesmen's trucks. At MAERC, water level remain high and all the sand roads in the headquarters area are now shallow streams. The cottages, labs, and offices are all on higher ground and are dry. All the Ranch buildings/cottages survived the storm without damage except two. A tree fell on the Ranch Manager’s cottage damaging the bathroom, and a wind turbine was blown out of the roof at the Bohlen Cottage, allowing flooding in the Studio.

Storm Shelter Archbold.--About 40 Staff and their families, interns, and visiting scientists spent the storm night at Archbold, including James Carrel, Archbold Research Associate, who arrived Saturday afternoon to begin 3 weeks of research on spider populations.

Acknowledgments.

It takes a team effort to handle a hurricane - hours to prepare and sometimes days, even weeks, to clean up. We have prepared for four storms and are still cleaning up after two of them that hit in about one-month's time. The extra effort to prepare for these hurricanes, while still performing necessary daily duties, required a Herculean effort! This would not have been possible without the dedicated efforts of Archbold's employees here at the Station, at MAERC, and at the Avon Park Bombing Range. Thank you all!--Robert Hippchen, Operations Manager and Susan Pettine, Chief Operations Officer.