But Fran came up east of The Bahamas. What is interesting is that Fran was the second of three active storms crossing the Atlantic at the same time, the others being Eduoard and Gustav. Though it weakened considerably a couple of times and was very disorganized due to the influence of Eduoard about 800 miles ahead of her, she kept redeveloping and once Eduoard was out of the way, Fran pulled herself together and ramped up to a Cat 3 before making landfall at Cape Fear.