Tampa Florida

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Please stay away Frances!
TAMPA - Anne DePury arrived at her Ybor City business Thursday morning to find $50,000 worth of air conditioning units halfway submerged in standing water.
``It's all ruined,'' said DePury, co-owner of Bart DePury Air Conditioning. ``We can't put these in people's homes.''

Water had seeped under the back and front doors during Wednesday night's intense storm, saturating DePury's carpet and causing the tools in her warehouse to float like toys in a bathtub. This is the second time in three weeks the business has flooded.

``We pay $5,000 in property damage and then I have to eat another $50,000 in flood damage,'' DePury said. ``It's ridiculous. We need help from the city.''

DePury wasn't the only one frustrated.

Wastewater overflows washed away 400 feet of sidewalk on Bayshore Boulevard, and water invaded yards and other businesses in south Tampa and Ybor City, leaving some motorists stranded.

Jack Morriss, the city's director of public works, said that in addition to the collapsed sidewalk, Bayshore's seawall moved out 8 inches and a new crack appeared.

In his 30 years with the city, Morriss said he's never seen anything like that happen.

The storm dropped nearly 4 inches of rain on the city within two hours, highlighting Tampa's decades-old flooding problem.

Steve Daignault, the city's administrator for public works and utility services, said there are no short-term solutions. Anything that would significantly help would cost ``hundreds of millions,'' he said.

``It's going to be expensive,'' Daignault said. ``It's going to be disruptive. And it's not going to happen soon.''


A Drop In The Bucket

The city last year approved an annual stormwater fee that averages $12 per household, which raised $1.8 million. Most of that, Daignault said, was eaten up in the $12 million the city spent building new storm sewers, maintaining existing ones, cleaning pipes and doing street sweeping and planning projects.

The city's 2005 budget calls for $3.89 million in stormwater capital improvement projects.

Possibilities include increasing the stormwater fee and charging fees to developers and builders, both of which are apt to cause a backlash from those affected.

Mayor Pam Iorio said she wouldn't ask for a fee increase this year but may next year, when she hopes to have a comprehensive plan for overhauling the system.

Once a plan is in place, she'll seek state and federal aid.

``We're going to need all the cooperation we can get,'' Iorio said. ``It's never been addressed.''

Some Tampa neighborhoods have old drainage systems; some have none at all. The drainage pipes are designed to dump stormwater into the bay, but they get clogged because they can't keep up with heavy rain, Daignault said.

Long-term plans include building a retention pond in south Tampa to store the water before it goes into the bay. One possible location is near Henderson Boulevard and South Dale Mabry Highway.

It's a costly project, though, and it would be difficult to find available land.

No one wants a retention pond as a neighbor, and south Tampa land is so valuable, the city would have a difficult time bidding for it.

``We don't need another bank or McDonald's,'' Daignault said. ``What we need is a retention pond. People don't want it, but they don't want water in their yards either.''

In Ybor, the city will eventually dig up the streets and reconstruct ditches, Daignault said, but there are no immediate plans to do so.

The flooding was so bad in Ybor City on Wednesday night that city officials closed Seventh Avenue. Some motorists were stranded in the high water. Ed and Pauline Tores said people crowded on their front porch at 2706 Seventh Ave.

One woman, carrying three small children, walked to their home in water that was waist- deep in parts.

``Her car was flooded and she was yelling for help,'' Pauline Tores said. ``It can be very scary.''

AAA Auto Club South was inundated with emergency calls from people whose vehicles wouldn't start, said spokesman Gregg Laskoski.

``Certainly in south Tampa, we had a higher volume than usual because of the flooding,'' Laskoski said.

Many AAA service trucks couldn't get to stranded cars because of flooding.

April Nelson, of south Tampa, said the water was coming over the hood of her Hyundai Sonata when she got stuck Wednesday evening at Henderson Boulevard and Manhattan Avenue. On Thursday, she had it in a shop for repairs and said it would set her back at least $500, which is the deductible on her car insurance.

In Palma Ceia, rains caused Jim Head's bathroom to flood. ``I expected a damned tornado at any moment because it was just that kind of weather,'' Head said.

A lightning strike nearby caused a fire that damaged Victor Short's home on West Sevilla Street. ``He's had enough,'' Head said of Short. ``After half a lifetime here, he's going back to Virginia to live.''


Living At `Ground Zero'

Scott Smith, owner of Smith Bros. Framing Inc., calls his store location on South Dale Mabry ``ground zero.''

On the east side of the street, just south of Neptune Street, the custom art framing business sits at the lowest point along the commercial strip - where a pond forms with any heavy downpour.

Smith crafted a metal track at the base of the store's glass door entrance. When the rains come, he drops a board into it and places a towel behind it.

The torrential rains of Wednesday night left their mark - 6 inches high - on the glass, but inside the business remained dry.

Tampa Electric Co. reported 13,000 customers without power at the height of the storm. By Thursday afternoon, power was restored to all but 400 customers, said spokesman Ross Bannister.

Verizon blamed a lightning strike for about 2,400 Carrollwood customers being without telephone service Thursday.

The storm also caused wastewater overflows.

Wastewater entered several homes in south Tampa and some Ybor City businesses. It also contaminated Hillsborough Bay just south of Bay to Bay Boulevard. City crews are cleaning the waste and installing signs alerting residents not to swim or wade in the contaminated water.

Soon after the rain started, Mel Zack pulled his Ford F-150 into his driveway. Zack has a prosthetic right leg, so he said he couldn't run from the driveway to his south Tampa home.

``I said, `It'll pass soon. It's just a light shower,' '' Zack said. ``Well, it was no light shower. Hell, it was like a second flood.''

Zack sat in his truck and waited. And waited. Eventually, he had to go to the restroom. After an hour of waiting, when the rainappeared to let up, he stepped out of his truck and walked to his house.

``That was the worst rain I ever sat through,'' he said.

Others were also inconvenienced.

When the rain came, a guest had stopped by Vicki Pollyea's south Tampa home to use her fax machine. The downpour caused the guest to stay three hours. Pollyea offered scrambled eggs, potatoes and Pinot Grigio.

Rain gauges in Pollyea's front and back yard indicated 6 inches of rainfall at the house on Moody Avenue near Bern's Steak House.

``I've lived in south Tampa my whole life,'' said Pollyea, 47. ``At one point near sunset, it was the worst rain I've ever seen.''


Reporters Falguni Bhuta, Ted Byrd, Ivan Hathaway and Becky Richards contributed to this report.

This story can be found at: http://www.tampatrib.com/MGBUTZ6SDYD.html

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If Another Major Cane was to srike this area again this year it would be the worst weather disaster in US History, In my Opinion. So pray for this NOT to occur.