Florida.

Hurricane Gordon left Florida last week, but not before causing substantial damage in central and southern counties.

Classified as a tropical storm while in Florida, Gordon's high winds and driving rains were especially hard on the winter vegetable crop, causing extensive damage to the August planting of tomatoes, beans, and cucumbers, which farmers had just begun to harvest.

The flooding also affected the state's plant growers and sugar cane farmers. Altogether, Gordon decimated more than 35,000 acres worth an estimated $200 million, officials estimated.

Crop loss was concentrated in Palm Beach, St. Lucie, and Dude counties.

Last week's rains, which came after an unusually wet September and October in south Florida, also burdened local flood control systems.

The storm, which formed off Nicaragua on Nov. 8, struck Cuba and Haiti before smashing into Florida Tuesday. It then headed into the Gulf of Mexico and mined back into the central part of the state.

Gordon has been blamed for six deaths in Florida.

On Thursday the storm headed back out to sea and was reborn as a hurricane, beginning its zigzag voyage up the Atlantic Coast.

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