Leaky roofs. Long lines. Cold showers. Buzzing generators.
Ice and cold water were luxuries, but so were MREs, the military field rations packaged in shiny, light-brown bags. "Hunker down" became part of the vernacular.
And even though power was out for weeks and it was unbearably hot and humid, neighbors helpedneighbors. They grabbed chainsaws and cut trees. They helped put up shutters and helped take them down. They removed debris, borrowed extension cords and shared meals they cooked together on gas grills.
Against a backdrop of shredded mobile homes, rain-soaked insulation and bluetarp roofs, acts of kindness still popped up everywhere.
It's what manyTreasure Coast residents remember most about September 2004,whentwo powerful hurricanes, Frances and Jeanne, roaredashore — in exactly the same spot— 21 days apart and wreaked havoc from Sebastian to Hobe Sound. (Frances arrived Sept. 5;Jeanne followed Sept. 26.)
"Family, friends and neighbors increased verbal communication with each other. Neighbors got to meet, some for the first time, and catch up," said Stephanie Webb, who lived in Vero Beach when the storms hit.
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Frances and Jeannewere just two parts of a quartet of hurricanes to batter the Sunshine State that year. Hurricane Charley pummeled Southwest Florida onAug. 13 with 145 mph winds and Ivan ripped through the Panhandle on Sept. 16.
It remains one of the most destructive Atlantic hurricane seasons on record.
Still, there was a feeling of community.
"I remember the heat of no power for six weeks and how everyone in Vero Beach came together," said Cathy Selph, of Vero Beach."(It's) so sad that it takes something of destruction to make the goodness come out again."
Through social media,TCPalm asked Treasure Coast residents for memories of hurricanes Frances and Jeanne. Here are some of their stories:
Loretta A. Englishman, White City
"It’s hard to believe it has been 15 years since those ladies decided to tag team us along the Treasure Coast.
"I evacuated from my grandparents' house since we were east of U.S.1 in Jensen Beach.
"My mom and I worked against the clock trying to get out as much as we could. I remember very clearly a very bad burn I somehow got moving a light fixture.
"My boyfriend and I went to Boynton Beach to stay with his mom. That’s all we could do.
"In what felt like a month, we went back, and when I got out of my car and could see the damage, I almost fell to the ground. There was a very big oak tree where my room was. The laundry room was unrecognizable. Not much could be done.
"Jeanne just added insult to injury. The home was no longer inhabitable so my family helped me move back to White City, where I grew up.
"As bad as we thought those hurricanes were, I feel like every season the storms get worse. Probably the price we always have to pay to live in this beautiful place."
Stephanie Webb, Radcliff, Kentucky
Living without electricity for a few weeks was tough, but figuring out ways to keep cool was even tougher, Webb said.
"We camped out in the in living room under a portable AC unit," said Webb, 41, who moved to Radcliff, Kentucky, in 2016."(My daughters)loved that."
Webb's daughters, Stevi and Hazel, who were 10 and 3 at the time, respectively, were forced to tapinto their imaginations. They colored, they chased each other around the yard and they sang songs.
"They learned different ways to survive without electricity," she said.
Webb's advice for parents: Be proactive.
"Let kids know what's going on," she said. "Let them help. Let them be a part of everything. If they're kept in the dark because they're kids, they're going to grow up not being able to react to anything.
"They'll be less freaked out, less worried and less stressed if they think they're big enough to help," she added. "They'll feel braver because of it."
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Larry Blandford, Fort Pierce
1. Being without electricity for 19 days and the unbearable heat.
2. Trapped in our house for many days due to the flooding of 10 Mile Creek. We live at the end of a dead-end street.
3. When the flooding finally receded after several days, we were left with 1½ acres of dead, rotting fish. I will never forget that unbearable smell.
4. I was amazed at all the vegetative debris generated by a couple hundred cabbage palms and several oak trees. The cleanup took about a week.
5. On top of all that, my mom had her entire roof torn off of her house in town and it totally destroyed it. We spent a year rebuilding it.
Gail Brown, Vero Beach
"Our home was the place where our church family came to meet and go out with chainsaws around town to help cut trees for those who needed it.
"Our pastor,my husband, friendsand several others who stayed in Vero Beach went around looking for fallen trees and started sawing them up.
"I remember several elderly people who didn't evacuate were so appreciative."
Jonathan Mockus, DeBary
"I was 11 (and living in Jensen Beach) when they both struck. I remember it clear as day. My parents and I stayed at the Holiday Inn for Frances, hoping it wouldn’t be that bad. None of us could sleep that night and we only had a hand-crank radio to listen for updates, and we heard the storm basically hauled over where we lived.
"The next morning we looked outside and saw the Howard Johnson’s roof was almost completely gone. Our home was less than a mile away from the center of the eye on Hutchinson Island. We had to wait several extra days to returnsince the National Guard wasn’t letting anyone back on.
"What we returned to was catastrophic. Our pool enclosure was destroyed and there was half a trailer in our pool. One of our neighbors said a tornado ripped through the community to our north and blew mobile home parts everywhere. It was so quiet. It didn’t feel like home.
"During the two weeks without power, we had to go to the Treasure Coast Square mall to pick up supplies \the Army was giving away. Once those ran out we resorted to canned soup and Chef Boyardee.
"Finally, the power came back and then a week later Jeanne came through. Thankfully, we didn’t get as bad damage this time around and we made sure to get better food supplies so we weren’t eating cold ravioli."
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Holly Hyatt, Palm City
"Mostly, I remember going back to the supply store two weeks after Frances, knowing another one was going to hit us directly AGAIN.
"Everyone was just walking around the store looking almost shell-shocked. No way?Here? Again?
"We learned a lot about our neighbors, how to share a pot of coffee from the grill, how to take gas from the boat and give it to the neighbor for his generator. And man, it was hot!"
Diane Angelo, Fort Pierce
"I just moved to Florida in between hurricanes, and my moving van with all my furniture was stuck in Ocala for a week. The house I had rented was flooded.
"I had an air mattress, no electricity for threeweeks and no screens on my windows.
"That was my welcome package to Florida.Thankfully, things went up from there!"
Maria Beckwith, Jensen Beach
"A small tornado took our roof off before the hurricanes; a neighbor videotaped it.We lost everything.
"My husband was a deputy, working Hutchinson Island with the National Guard.An air handler fell on our bed, I hid under our dining room table with our dog. Hopefully, never again."
Debbie Hankins, Fort Pierce
"Nothing about it was funny, but I do have a funny little story to tell.
"Where I live, the neighbor to the right of me is Elise, and the neighbor next to her is Ivan. My husband's name is Gene. The neighbor to my left, her name is Fran. We had all thosenames that year.
"My neighbor, Elise, said no more, she was moving. She moved away from us. (But it was because of the hurricanes.)
"We all still have remained friends over the years, and the three of us all still live here. I do miss her as my neighbor. What a year that was!"
Nancy Jeanne, Port St. Lucie
"I lost my roof and house. I had inherited the house from my mother, who passed away the end of January 2004. She loved Florida but was terrified of hurricanes. Her name was Jeanne!
"She had a terrible sense of direction, and my family joked about Hurricane Jeanne meandering around in the ocean east of us.
"We went down to the studs to rebuild. It took six adjusters and 12 contents adjusters more than 10 months while I was trying to teach in a new district.
"My definition of hell on Earth!"
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Nathan Aguilar, Fort Pierce
"It was my freshman year of high school. We didn't have class the entire month of September.
"We had no power for 26 days. It was hot and miserable."
Debbie Farb, Vero Beach
"I remember waiting in line for ice, cold showers and sharing a first hot meal on a portable grill with my neighbor, Beth Walsh Stewart.
"I drove around Vero contacting employees we hadn't heard from yet. Everyone was OK, thank goodness. Several evacuated and never came back! It was the best and worst of times!"
Howard "Nick" Nickerson, Palm City
"It was early September 2004 when my wife and I closed on the sale of our house in Carlsbad, California, and were preparing to drive to our other home in Palm City.The plan was to take our time, sightseeing on the way east.
"Watching the evening news Sept. 2, we find there is a good possibility that a hurricane may come ashore in Florida, maybe near Stuart.Well, so much for our leisure trip back home.
"On the morning of Sept. 3, started driving east out of California.
"Three long days on the road as we pulled in near Mobile, Alabama. Checked into a motel and turned on the TV to see how Hurricane Frances was doing.To our surprise, Geraldo Rivera interviewing people on Osceola Street in downtown Stuart with the wind and rain swirling around them.We continued watching the coverage, anxiouslylooking forward to the morning so we could get under way for the final day's drive.
"We arrived late afternoon of Sept. 6.Our large cherrywood tree in the backyard was down, and a few screens around the pool enclosure were gone, but other than that, we got home free.
"Feeling fortunate, we got the yard cleaned up and suspiciously beganeyeing The Weather Channel for a storm they were calling Jeanne.This time there was no large cherry tree to take down, but it did a number on our home's shake roof, dislodging shingles.A couple of months before, I had noticed the roof's deterioration and placed an order with a roofing company and was put on a waiting list.I was first on the list when Jeanne came along.The insurance adjuster inspected and found there was wind damage and they would cover the cost of a new one.
Wow!The $30,000 I planned to dish out for a new roof was now being covered by my insurance policy.
"I feel sorry for people less fortunate than us who experienced expensive losses due to these storms.I hope any future hurricanes will treat them more kindly."
Dawn Blair, Port St. Lucie
"We had just moved to Port St. Lucie from Ohio. Our rental house was damaged, so we felt hurried to buy a house. We had to bid over price because we lost threeothers in bidding wars.
"Then came Hurricane Jeanne, and then Wilma the following year. We almost packed up and went home. Now I am glad I stayed because I love my house, Port St. Lucieand Florida."
Rebecca Carmody, Fort Pierce
"This was an awful time.
"I lost the roof from my house. My family all escaped to Clearwater before the storm. I was working at a drug rehab and had to stay to work. I went in to work late Thursday and two other nurses and the nurse practitioner were there until Sunday.
"I have lived here all my life, but that was the most scary storm I have ever been through. I could not live in my home afterward. My neighbors' mom let me stay there until my family came home from Clearwater.
"My insurance paid for Mickey and I to stay in a condo for eightmonths until the house was livable again. I just pray to never go through that again."
Heather Amici, Vero Beach
"I was on a cruise and had the choice to stay on the ship that would go out to sea or get off the ship. I chose to get off to make sure my 80-year-old Aunt Wilma was OK. She had just gotten out of the hospital and was supposed to beat PGA Village in Port St. Lucie.
"... She and her 80-year-old friend decided to go home to Spanish Lakes in Lakewood Park. When I arrived, it looked like a war zone and was it was flooded. I asked a man if he would drive in to get my aunt, her friend and her dog.
"She was sitting in her mobile home in the dark and the man shows a badge from the hospital and says, 'Ma'am, you have to leave.' She points next door and says, 'How about them? Why are they able to stay?' He says, 'I am going there next.'
"We drive to Orlando, but at Yeehaw Junction it is flooded and several cars are parked up along a fence ... We saw a car coming from the other direction and they said flooding wasn't bad ... so we proceed to Orlando. Water started coming over the hood of the car and the AC stopped working. We make it to Orlando and find a hotel.
"I will never forget Hurricane Frances. I always tell everyone that I survived Hurricane Wilma. I was very thankful she was OK and that I decided to get off the cruise ship."
Maureen Kenyon is TCPalm's trends reporter, keeping Treasure Coast residents updated on hot topics and happenings. Do you have a story to tell? Want to start a conversation? Send an email to maureen.kenyon@tcpalm.com, call 772-221-4249 or follow her on Twitter @_MaureenKenyon_.
