Florida braces for another hurricane

Florida was bracing itself last night for its second hurricane strike in a month as Hurricane Frances edged closer to the US coast. Forecasters predicted the state could be hit as early as tomorrow.

Florida was bracing itself last night for its second hurricane strike in a month as Hurricane Frances edged closer to the US coast. Forecasters predicted the state could be hit as early as tomorrow.

With parts of the state still clearing up the devastation of Hurricane Charley and with hundreds of people still with no homes to go to, the category 4 storm was last night due to strike the Bahamas.

"This still is a huge threat to the south-east US coast," said Jamie Rhome, a meteorologist with the National Hurricane Centre in Miami. "All indications for now is that Florida is the prime candidate."

Emergency workers were making preparations, for the storm, lowering the levels of storm canals and businesses were preparing to board up their windows. Hardware stores said their supplies of generators and other emergency items were rapidly being sold.

Forecasters think Hurricane Frances could be more damaging than Hurricane Charley which tore through Florida last month destroying around 30,000 homes and causing an estimated $7.4bn (£4.13bn) worth of damage. The storm was blamed for 27 deaths.