Hurricane Frances weakened slightly as it hit the Bahamas Friday, but officials worry that the Category 2 storm could regain strength by the time it reaches Florida, most likely Saturday afternoon.

Forecasters predict Frances will drop about 50 cm of rain when it comes ashore.

At 11 p.m. EDT, Frances was centred about 240 kilometres southeast of Palm Beach.

Satellite image of Frances over the Bahamas. ( NASA/MODIS)

Emergency officials fear the storm with not only bring torrential rainfall to the state but also tornadoes.

The storm is expected to course along the middle of Florida's eastern coast, and temper down into a tropical storm just before it reaches Tampa.

It's likely that Frances will weaken to a tropical depression as it moves over the Panhandle on Monday.

Church in Barefoot Bay, Micco, Florida. (AP photo)

When Frances roared into Nassau, Bahamas early Friday morning as a Category 3 storm, it knocked out power and telephone lines, ripped off the roof of a high school and damaged crops.

One death was reported - an 18-year-old man who died in Nassau after being electrocuted while filling a family generator with diesel, police said.

The storm has slowed its speed as it moves towards Florida, but one official with the Bahamas Red Cross said that often means the hurricane is rebuilding strength.

In Florida, residents waited anxiously in shelters and hotels as the lumbering storm moved slowly toward the state's Atlantic coast.

More than 2.5 million people clogged highways Thursday after officials issued the biggest evacuation order in state history.

• INDEPTH: Tropical storms and hurricanes

The order included the entire city of Miami Beach with a population of about 87,000. Those who chose to stay tried to buy food, water and plywood to board up windows, but some were disappointed by empty store shelves.

Among those relocated were 3,000 state prisoners and some 500 hospital patients.

Initially, the National Hurricane Center in Miami believed Frances could have developed into a Category 5 hurricane, which would have made it a storm worse than hurricane Charley that blew through the area three weeks ago.

Charley, a Category 4 storm system that was half as wide, killed 27 people and caused $7.4 billion US in damage in Florida.

• FROM AUG. 15, 2004: More than a million without power in Charley's wake

Already, a risk management firm that works for the insurance industry has estimated that Frances could rack up from $10 billion to $35 billion US in insured losses.