Flooding has left nine roads with an estimated $150,000. The county also spent about $33,000 on assistance, such as sandbagging and pumping.
By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET
Published July 1, 2003
NEW PORT RICHEY - Homes are flooded, roads are under water - and the rains keep coming.
Pasco County officials estimate that recent storms have so far caused about $150,000 in damage to nine roads, not counting whatever damage is being done to six other roads that remain partly submerged.
The county also has spent about $33,000 on "protective measures," such as sandbagging, barricading and pumping flooded areas, said Michele Baker, the county's director of Emergency Management.
The county tallied its costs for a conference call Monday to determine whether Florida sustained enough storm damage since June 17 to qualify for disaster relief from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Officials agreed to ask FEMA to send two teams - one to Citrus County, the other to Sarasota County - to assess the damage first-hand and decide whether federal aid is needed in those hardest-hit areas, said Mike Stone, spokesman for the state Division of Emergency Management.
In the meantime, Pasco County homeowners and businesses continue to deal with the unforgiving floods.
About 125 homes are affected by flooding in their yards or streets, while another 25 have less than a foot of water inside the house, Baker said.
The floodwaters near New Port Richey continue to rise for residents around Lake Worrell, also known as Bass Lake, where heavy rains have pushed the overflowing lake into the yards of about a dozen residents.
The possible tornado in Dade City on Sunday evening left six homes with minor wind damage and one more with major wind damage, Baker added.
Several inches of standing water still cover low-lying roads on both sides of the county. A flooded segment of Fivay Road, just east of the Regional Medical Center at Bayonet Point, is closed with barricades, leaving drivers to take a detour through the Lakeside Woodlands subdivision.
Meanwhile, business owners like Bob and Lynette Krull are trying to stay afloat. Most of Krull's Nursery and Landscaping on Ridge Road, east of Little Road, remains under water after nearly a week, and the couple is not ready for another El Nino, which flooded their business for eight weeks in 1998.
"I don't even know what inventory we've lost because we can't even get to it," Mrs. Krull said Monday. "We don't have boots tall enough to get through the water. It's over our head in certain places."
- Bridget Hall Grumet covers Pasco County government. She can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6244, or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6244. Her e-mail address is hall@sptimes.com
