Hurricane Jeanne leaves its trace

U.S. weather prediction service said, flood warnings and watches are in place in eight eastern U.S. states as the remains of Hurricane Jeanne, now a tropical depression, dump rain on South Carolina.

Flood and flash flood warnings are in place in parts of central North Carolina and southwestern Virginia, while parts of six states, Georgia, South Carolina, Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York are on flood watch, the Camp Springs, Maryland-based Hydrometeorological Prediction Center said in a 5 a.m. local time advisory.

&to=http://english.pravda.ru/world/20/91/368/14295_Haiti.html' target=_blank>Jeanne, which swept across Florida on Sept. 26, may cost insurers as much as $9 billion, adding to as much as $17.2 in damage from three preceding storms, according to AIR Worldwide Corp., which uses computer models to estimate insured losses, reports the Bloomberg.

According to the BBC, &to=http://english.pravda.ru/mailbox/22/98/387/11284_politics.html' target=_blank>US President George W Bush has asked Congress for $7.1bn for disaster relief in Florida and other southern states hit by recent heavy storms.

If approved, the package will increase to $12.2bn the amount of aid allocated during the current hurricane season.

Florida is clearing up after Hurricane Jeanne struck at the weekend, killing six people and cutting power supplies.

"We finally got rid of Jeanne," state meteorologist Ben Nelson said, voicing the sentiments of tens of thousands of Floridians.

Jeanne left thousands of damaged homes and some 5 million people without electricity in Florida, where storm-weary residents faced a clean-up from a fourth hurricane strike in six weeks.

The storm was blamed for at least six deaths in Florida after causing &to=http://http://newsfromrussia.com/accidents/2004/09/21/56200.html' target=_blank>floods in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico last week in which at least 2,430 people died. The Haiti toll rose from 1,650 to 2,400 on Monday when a priest reported 750 previously unreported deaths near Gonaives.