Storm conditions were forecast to last between 12 and 15 hours. Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown said people should not let their guard down because Frances had weakened, as it could still cause huge damage.

"(It is) a massive storm," Brown told reporters. "Unlike (recent Hurricane) Charley, this storm has an awful lot of moisture with it. This could be a very significant flooding event."

In the Bahamas, the hurricane killed one person, blew off roofs, downed trees and power lines and caused widespread flooding in the 700-island archipelago that is home to 300,000 people.

By 8 a.m., the slow-moving storm was about 110 miles east of West Palm Beach, Florida, and hanging over Freeport on Grand Bahama island, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

It was moving west-northwest at 6 mph on a path that could mean its core would sweep ashore near Vero Beach, just south of Cape Canaveral where NASA's space shuttles are launched, late on Saturday or early on Sunday.

The storm's top sustained winds were 105 mph, well down from the devastating 145 mph winds it carried a couple of days ago, but still strong enough to uproot trees, down power lines and wipe out mobile homes.

Hurricane-force winds were expected to spread out 105 miles from the center, but seemed likely to spare some of the most populated areas of Florida's east coast, such as Miami and Fort Lauderdale, from the full brunt of their fury.

Charley, a more powerful but much smaller hurricane, caused $7.4 billion in insured losses and killed more than 20 people last month.

'FED UP WITH IT'

"I'd like it to just do what it wants to do and get it over with," said Michael Conroy, 60, who was forced to abandon his beachfront home on Cape Canaveral island and seek shelter in a motel at Cocoa, farther inland.

"I'm fed up with it. Whatever is going to happen, let it happen. There's nothing I can do," he said, adding that after 15 years, he will probably leave Florida after Frances passes.

Tens of thousands of people were likely to lose power after Frances nears the U.S. coast and dumps up to 12 inches of rain on the Florida peninsula, emergency officials said.

As the storm bore down during the week, hundreds of thousands of Floridians left their homes to stay in hotels, with relatives and friends or in public storm shelters, shuttering their homes and businesses.

Gasoline ran out in many places and few stores remained open in the ghost towns along the exposed coast. Most airports across the state were closed. Disney World and other central Florida theme parks were also closed on Saturday, and big shopping malls were shut at the start of the three-day Labor Day holiday weekend.

By early Saturday, state emergency management officials reported some 55,000 people were in public shelters, a figure that included some of those left homeless when Hurricane Charley slammed into Florida's southwest coast just three weeks ago.

Strong winds from advance rain squalls downed trees and knocked out power on Friday to 170,000 people in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, which along with Palm Beach are the state's most populous areas, with more than 5 million people. Work crews restored electricity to 90,000 but would not venture out again until the storm passes, a Florida Power and Light spokeswoman said.

Municipalities in evacuation zones imposed curfews to keep people off the roads at night and to prevent looting.