FORT PIERCE, Florida, Sept 26 (AFP) - Hurricane Jeanne battered Florida Sunday, smashing homes, tearing off roofs, flooding streets and leaving one million people without electricity.
The fourth hurricane to pummel Florida in six weeks, Jeanne made landfall at the same spot where Charley slammed into its southeastern coast earlier this month.
"This has been a historic six-week period. Never before, since 1880 has there been a state that has received four hurricanes at once and back in 1880 in Texas there were probably a 100,000 people that lived there, we're a state of seventeen million ," Florida Governor Jeb Bush told reporters at a news conference.
When Jeanne crashed ashore, it was a powerful category three hurricane packing winds of 193 kilometers (120 miles) per hour, with higher gusts.
By 1800 GMT, Jeanne lost strength and was downgraded to a tropical storm, with maximum sustained winds dropped to nearly (70 miles) per hour, with higher gusts.
"Continued weakening is forecast over the next 24 hours," the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said in an advisory.
Jeanne's center was located some 32 kilometers (20 miles) southeast of Brooksville, Florida, moving towards the northwest at 16 kilometers (10 miles) per hour.
Forecasters expect the weakened Jeanne to move over northern Florida over the next 24 hours.
As soon as the worst of the storm was over here at dawn, police and rescue workers cruised the sodden, debris-strewn streets.
Authorities imposed curfews to help emergency teams move faster, and to deter looters from plundering boarded up homes and businesses.
They also sealed off bridges leading to barrier islands as they scoured the area for possible victims, even though residents were among the three million who had been told to evacuate.
There were no immediate official reports of deaths, but several overturned vehicles could be seen on the highways, and officials looked into reports that a vehicle was blown off a bridge.
"Immediate relief will be coming in the terms of ice and water," Bush told reporters as he thanked emergency workers, adding "that on a long term basis this state will not only survive, it will rebound."
Miami was not hit directly by the hurricane, but an elderly man in his 70s was electrocuted in an accident apparently linked to Jeanne. Police spokeswoman Hilda Fernandez said they found the man "on the ground with lives lines on him."
Police could not confirm reports of a missing surfer the Coast Guard had been looking for late Saturday.
In Fort Pierce, one of the towns worst hit by the storm, trees, lamp posts and traffic lights littered the streets. Numerous trailer homes were smashed to pieces, as Jeanne in some cases completing the destruction Frances had started three weeks ago.
The eye of the hurricane made landfall just before midnight (0400 GMT Sunday) at Hutchinson Island, just south of Fort Pierce. The storm was the same that last week devastated northern Haiti, leaving some 1,300 people confirmed dead and hundreds more missing and feared dead.
Eerie green flashes lit up the night sky as transformers blew out, cutting electricity for yet more residents of the storm-weary state.
Frantic callers telephoned radio stations and emergency services to say their houses were coming apart.
Forty people in a special needs shelter in Brevard County were moved in the night after the roof of the facility flew off, said Dave Bruns of the Florida Emergency Management Agency.
Forecasters warned of tornadoes and said the storm had pushed four to seven feet (1.2 to 2.1 meters) of ocean water onto land as torrential rain poured yet more water onto saturated ground.
Early indications suggested that faster, fiercer Jeanne was dealing a bigger blow to Florida than did Frances.
Governor Bush asked the US president -- his brother George W. Bush -- to declare the state a disaster zone for the fourth time in six weeks to "help us expedite additional support."
Forecasters were awed by the number of powerful storms making landfall this hurricane season, which lasts from June to November.
"It's unbelievable. This year is going to be one to tell your grandchildren about," said Max Mayfield, director of the Miami-based National Hurricane Center.
Hurricane Ivan last week killed more than 130 people in the eastern United States and Caribbean nations. Before that, hurricanes Charley and Frances killed dozens and destroyed thousands of homes after slamming into Florida's coasts.