Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne (2004) in South Brevard, Florida

Frances struck South Brevard on September 4 to 5, 2004, and Jeanne followed on the night of September 25 to 26, both crossing the coast at the southern end of Hutchinson Island, south of Micco and Barefoot Bay.

The National Hurricane Center places Frances ashore over the southern end of Hutchinson Island near 0430 UTC on September 5 as a Category 2 hurricane (NHC Frances report, page 1). Melbourne International Airport logged its peak Frances gust at 2358 UTC on September 4, about four and a half hours before that landfall, and NWS Melbourne lists the MLB automated station among those that failed during or before the height of the storm (NWS Melbourne Frances report). The center of Jeanne's 50 nautical mile eye crossed the coast at the southern end of Hutchinson Island just east of Stuart at 0400 UTC on September 26 (NHC Jeanne report, page 2).

The peak gusts at Melbourne International Airport came 21 days apart, at 2358 UTC on September 4 and 2342 UTC on September 25. The City of Palm Bay timeline counts Charley, Frances and Jeanne together: the three 2004 hurricanes cost the city $13 million in damage and debris cleanup (City of Palm Bay history).

Jeanne brought the stronger wind to South Brevard: the Palm Bay cooperative station recorded a 74 knot peak at 0819 UTC on September 26, and the NWS Melbourne office measured the highest sustained surface wind in the National Hurricane Center's Jeanne report.

That office reading is the one the National Hurricane Center singled out. The highest sustained surface wind reported was 79 knots at the Melbourne NWS office at 0818 UTC, when the center of Jeanne was about 45 nautical miles southwest of Melbourne (NHC Jeanne report, page 3). The NWS Melbourne post-storm list adds the Palm Bay cooperative station's 74 knot peak one minute later and a 63 knot peak listed for Melbourne at 0814 UTC (NWS Melbourne Jeanne report). At Melbourne International Airport the instruments gave out early: the airport's 2-minute wind reached 52 knots at 2343 UTC on September 25 and its gust 68 knots a minute earlier, and NWS Melbourne lists MLB among the automated sites that failed during or before the height of the storm.

Frances left lower readings at Melbourne International Airport. The airport's highest gust was 63 knots at 2358 UTC on September 4, its lowest pressure 995.9 millibars at 1858 UTC on September 5, and the Florida Coastal Monitoring tower at Indian Harbour Beach gusted to 68 knots at 1453 UTC on September 5 (NWS Melbourne Frances report). A St. Johns River Water Management District station at Lake Winder in western Brevard reported a 52 knot gust.

Pressure fell in Melbourne as Jeanne came ashore. A Melbourne reading of 981.4 millibars at 0414 UTC on September 26 is listed in the Jeanne report, 14 minutes after the 0400 UTC landfall (NWS Melbourne Jeanne report). The National Hurricane Center describes a swath of hurricane force sustained winds about 90 nautical miles wide on the Florida east coast from near Cape Canaveral southward to near Stuart, a stretch of coast that includes the South Brevard shore (NHC Jeanne report, page 3).

The Palm Bay cooperative station measured 7.27 inches in Frances and 8.93 inches in Jeanne, and NWS Melbourne reported Jeanne's most widespread flooding over south Brevard and Osceola counties.

Frances spread its rain over four days. NWS Melbourne lists 7.95 inches at Melbourne International Airport, 8.11 at the NWS Melbourne office and 7.27 at the Palm Bay cooperative station for September 3 to 6 (NWS Melbourne Frances report), and the National Hurricane Center rainfall table repeats the 7.27 inch Palm Bay total (NHC Frances report, page 20).

Jeanne's rain fell on areas NWS Melbourne describes as already saturated from Frances (NWS Melbourne Jeanne report). The National Hurricane Center describes a narrower band of 11 to 13 inches near the eyewall track over Osceola, Brevard and Indian River counties (NHC Jeanne report, page 3), and its station table lists 8.93 inches at the Palm Bay cooperative station (NHC Jeanne report, page 11). NWS Melbourne reported 6.04 inches at Melbourne International Airport and wrote that two flooding deaths were attributed to Jeanne in south Brevard County (NWS Melbourne Jeanne report).

FEMA's OpenFEMA FIMA NFIP Redacted Claims data, queried October 18, 2026, count flood insurance claims by community and storm. They list 40 claims tagged to Hurricane Frances in the City of Palm Bay (OpenFEMA NFIP claims, Palm Bay, Frances) and 65 tagged to Hurricane Jeanne (OpenFEMA NFIP claims, Palm Bay, Jeanne). The Town of Malabar shows 4 Frances claims (OpenFEMA NFIP claims, Malabar, Frances) and 5 Jeanne claims (OpenFEMA NFIP claims, Malabar, Jeanne). The community the data lists as Brevard County shows 253 claims for Frances (OpenFEMA NFIP claims, Brevard County community, Frances) and 301 for Jeanne (OpenFEMA NFIP claims, Brevard County community, Jeanne).

Both storms pushed the Indian River Lagoon onto its western shore in South Brevard, and after Jeanne the northbound lane of U.S. 1 collapsed in places in the Melbourne, Micco and Barefoot Bay areas.

Frances set it up. NWS Melbourne estimated lagoon surge on the west bank of the Indian River at 3 to 4 feet within southern Brevard and Indian River counties, against 2 to 3 feet around Cocoa and Rockledge, and reported considerable erosion of that western bank, especially in southern Brevard (NWS Melbourne Frances report).

Jeanne did more damage along the lagoon shore. NWS Melbourne called the erosion inside the Intracoastal Waterway the unusual part of Jeanne and reported severe erosion along the lagoon's west shore from central Brevard through Indian River County, with stretches of the northbound highway lane undermined until they collapsed in the Melbourne, Micco and Barefoot Bay areas (NWS Melbourne Jeanne report). The office also noted that Jeanne arrived near low tide, without which the storm tide from southern Brevard to Martin County could have been up to 4 feet higher in some areas.

On the open coast, the National Hurricane Center measured 3.8 feet of surge above normal tide at Trident Pier in Port Canaveral about an hour after Jeanne's landfall and estimated that surge of up to 6 feet likely occurred from the vicinity of Melbourne southward to Fort Pierce (NHC Jeanne report, page 4). NWS Melbourne reported Highway A1A covered by sand and saltwater in a number of places from south Brevard County southward.

NWS Melbourne aerial surveys after Jeanne found two clear tornado tracks across Barefoot Bay, where the destruction was the most severe in southern Brevard County.

The surveys described small swaths of extreme damage inside a much larger area of similar high winds. NWS Melbourne attributed them either to eyewall convection that mixed much stronger winds down to the ground, like an intense downburst, or to true eyewall tornadoes of the kind Dr. Ted Fujita documented in Hurricane Andrew in 1992, which the report notes are not well documented (NWS Melbourne Jeanne report).

Barefoot Bay was not alone in southern Brevard. The same Jeanne report lists a number of areas of concentrated forest blowdowns and enhanced damage elsewhere in southern Brevard and Indian River counties. Most of the streaks formed in the eyewall or the innermost rainbands, the report says.

NWS Melbourne put Brevard County's preliminary Jeanne damage at $320.4 million, with 14,207 residences damaged and 892 destroyed, while Palm Bay counts $13 million in damage and cleanup from all three 2004 hurricanes.

The Frances figures were early estimates. Brevard County emergency management told NWS Melbourne that Frances damage would be close to 90 million dollars in incorporated areas and 21 million dollars in municipalities, before any detailed assessment was available (NWS Melbourne Frances report). NWS Melbourne noted that a detailed damage assessment for Brevard was unavailable at the time.

Nationally, the National Hurricane Center lists Frances, as of 2011, at $9.507 billion in U.S. damage, which the report says makes it the eighth-costliest U.S. hurricane, and notes that space and military facilities in the Cape Canaveral area reported over $100 million in property damage (NHC Frances report, page 4). Jeanne's total U.S. damage estimate was updated in August 2011 to $7.66 billion (NHC Jeanne report, page 4).

For Palm Bay, the city's own timeline entry for 2004 reads that Hurricanes Charley, Frances and Jeanne impact the city with $13 million dollars in damage and debris cleanup, and the next entry records the city passing 100,000 residents in 2006 (City of Palm Bay history).

Brevard County, home to Palm Bay, Malabar, Grant-Valkaria, Micco and Barefoot Bay, was a designated area in both federal major disaster declarations: DR-1545-FL for Frances and DR-1561-FL for Jeanne.

The OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries dataset, last refreshed October 5, 2026, lists Brevard (County), which holds Palm Bay and Malabar, under DR-1545-FL, declared September 4, 2004 for an incident period of September 3 to October 8, and under DR-1561-FL, declared September 26, 2004 for an incident period of September 24 to November 17 (OpenFEMA declarations, Brevard County). For Brevard County both declarations opened Individual and Households, Individual Assistance, Public Assistance and Hazard Mitigation programs, and both carry a last individual assistance filing date of February 28, 2005.

The request dates show how fast the state moved for Brevard County: the Frances request is dated September 2, 2004, three days before landfall, and the Jeanne request September 25, the day before Jeanne crossed the coast south of Barefoot Bay (OpenFEMA declarations, Brevard County). The Frances incident period, which ran to October 8, was still open when the Jeanne declaration for Brevard County was issued on September 26.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, against the NWS Melbourne storm reports, the National Hurricane Center reports and OpenFEMA.