Weary Florida On Hurricane Watch

Here we go again!

Hurricane Jeanne was trekking westward Friday on a path that could lead to Florida's east coast by Sunday, setting off another round of storm preparations in a state still reeling from three earlier strikes.

"It's Friday, so we must be talking about a hurricane," said Florida Emergency Management Director Craig Fugate.

The fears of more flooding, devastation and power outages sent many people scurrying to local grocery and hardware stores, stocking up on supplies that quickly ran low before the last storms. State and federal officials geared up for another disaster response.

"I know people are frustrated, they're tired of all this," Gov. Jeb Bush said Friday. "Trust me, their governor is as well."

"Our resources are stretched, but we remain committed in our mission to serve the state's 17 million residents in preparing and responding to all of these storms," Bush said.

Jeanne could slam into Florida just over a week after Hurricane Ivan thrashed the Panhandle Sept. 16. Ivan and the two previous storms, Charley and Frances, caused billions of dollars of damage and were blamed for at least 70 deaths in the state.

A hurricane watch was issued at 5 a.m. EDT Friday from Florida City near the state's southern tip to St. Augustine. The watch for most of the state's east coast means hurricane conditions with winds of at least 74 mph are possible within 36 hours.

"We cannot pinpoint where that specific landfall will be," said state meteorologist Ben Nelson. "We do think that it will be somewhere in the Saturday night through Sunday afternoon timeframe."

Jews observing their holiest day of the year, Yom Kippur, which begins at sundown Friday and ends sundown Saturday, may face a choice between preparing for the storm and devoutness. During that period, observant Jews usually don't work or carry cash and many don't travel by car, and don't listen to radio and television.

"We ask those who are keeping their faith in the strict orthodox practices to prepare early so they will not be caught off guard by the advance of Jeanne," Bush said.

Computer models showed possible landfall anywhere from South Florida to Cape Canaveral.

"The official forecast brings Jeanne to Category 3 strength by Saturday afternoon as it once again affects the Bahamas, which were severely impacted by Hurricane Frances only 3 weeks ago," said Nelson.

Because the storm was forecast to be so close to Florida, the state is "going to have impacts no matter what," said Lt. Dave Roberts, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center.

The only other time four hurricanes hit the same state in one season was in Texas in 1886, National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield said.

Scientists say Atlantic and Gulf Coast states may be entering a period of heavy storm activity after a relatively quiet phase. Florida has been spared in recent years and landfall statistics are likely to balance out over time, Mayfield said.

"We've just reached some level of normalcy and here it comes again. I've never seen anything like this," said Margaret McFarlane, of Greenacres. "We've already refilled our refrigerators, gotten the debris out of the streets and it's going to happen all over again. I'm not sure how much more people can take."

"We're tired, but there's another storm threatening our citizens. We're ready to go, we're gearing up, and we're going to do it just like we did for the last three hurricanes. We're going to meet the needs of our citizens," vowed Fugate.

Work crews along the state's Atlantic Coast worked Friday to remove debris left behind from Hurricane Frances, which struck Sept. 4-5. But many acknowledged it was a losing battle.

"With another hurricane, there's just too much there — we just don't have the manpower to get it all done," said Martin County spokesman Greg Sowell, who estimated nearly 80 percent of debris remained from Frances. He said some streets had "debris piled up 5 to 6 feet high."

For insurance carriers, this has been a hurricane season of massive loss, one they say is painful, but affordable, reports CBS News Correspondent Mark Strassmann. After Hurricane Andrew and its record $26 billion in losses, Florida's insurance industry reorganized, increasing its deductibles, rewriting policies to its highest risk customers and building a massive stormy day fund.

"We're very confident that we will be able to handle any claims that come our way.," said Loretta Worters of the Insurance Information Institute.

In Haiti, where Jeanne killed more than 1,100 people, survivors who were left with almost nothing in the devastated town of Gonaives buried unclaimed corpses in mud-clogged backyards and attacked aid trucks and even neighbors bringing them food.

"You don't want to make me use this!" one man screamed as he waved a wrench at people carrying cauldrons of food to distribute at a church. The volunteers had come from the port of St. Marc to Gonaives, where flooding from the storm killed at least 1,100 people.

Hungry and thirsty survivors — some of whom have lost entire families and everything they own — were losing patience at the slow pace of relief.

Knee-deep mud sucked up animal carcasses and sharp pieces of torn-off zinc roofs, as well as human excrement after the sanitation system was destroyed.

Tropical Storm Ivan sloshed ashore Friday morning near the southern Texas-Louisiana border and was downgraded to a tropical depression, bringing with it heavy rains, strong winds, but nowhere near the devastation it caused as a Category 4 hurricane last week.

"All the emergency crews were on alert, but it was a quiet night," reports CBS News Correspondent Rob Milford in Beaumont, Texas. A flood watch continues for southeast Texas for the weekend.