Tampa residents shop and go to the movies, doing what comes normal.
By RODNEY THRASH, CHRISTOPHER AVE
Published August 15, 2004
TAMPA - Janet Ceccarelli couldn't take it anymore.
With the threat of a Category 4 hurricane so close to her Brandon home, she spent Friday under what her husband described as "self-imposed quarantine."
Ceccarelli wasn't about to spend her Saturday the same way. So the 58-year-old woman asked - no, demanded - that her husband take her to International Plaza to shop.
"And I acquiesced as a good husband should," Jack Ceccarelli said.
The Ceccarellis were not alone. Slowly, Tampa Bay area residents put the storm scare behind them and did what they normally do on a rainy weekend: hit a mall, take in a movie, order a pizza.
"Twenty-four hours without shopping and people just can't stand it," said Jennifer Griffith, 42, of Clearwater. She shopped in a pool store, Office Depot and CompUSA before going out for pizza.
Major roadways were relatively clear much of the day. But a huge traffic jam clogged westbound Interstate 4 from Osceola County to the Hillsborough County line, and officials urged motorists to stay away.
The Palms of Pasadena Hospital in South Pasadena reopened at 3 p.m. The hospital had evacuated Thursday as Hurricane Charley approached.
Other businesses that closed Friday reopened Saturday morning. And customers found them.
The parking lot at a 20-screen Oldsmar megaplex was as crowded as ever Saturday afternoon. Ticket lines were five deep despite the heavy downpour.
Harry and Sandy Ericson took in Collateral, the new Tom Cruise-Jamie Foxx thriller.
"We loved it," said Harry Ericson, 61, who admitted the storm ordeal had left him tired.
The couple live in a Clearwater Beach condominium and have been on the beach since 1994. This wasn't the first storm and it won't be the last, they agreed.
Hungry customers arrived early for steaks and fried onions when Outback Steakhouse on Fourth Street N in St. Petersburg opened at 4 p.m. Saturday. "The crowds are a little earlier than normal and it's getting busy now - busy, busy," Dennis Crowley, managing partner, said around 6 p.m.
Mike Mistal, 35, took his family to Lifestyle Family Fitness at Countryside's Westfield Shoppingtown at Countryside Saturday morning, where it was hard to find a parking space. At Citrus Park's Westfield Shoppingtown, the scene was the same, Mistal said.
"It was slammed," said Mistal, who stopped by the mall's Pottery Barn outlet. "Just packed."
At Bay Air Charter Inc. at Albert Whitted Airport in St. Petersburg, general manager Karla Rissmiller said she received about the usual number of callers.
But a few requests were different.
The U.S. Geological Survey reserved an aircraft today so scientists could measure the storm's effect on area beaches.
And Rissmiller couldn't help some callers.
"We had a couple people call for helicopter charters to go look at damage of land in Port Charlotte," she said. "They want to look at their property. But we don't do helicopters."
There were signs that Tampa Bay area businesses had not recovered completely from the prestorm buildup. Gas pumps at stations such as the Amoco on Spruce Street and Dale Mabry Highway were surrounded with yellow tape. Translation: No more gas. And mega stores such as Wal-Mart still were out of essentials such as size-D batteries.
A handful of customers at the Home Depot at U.S. 19 and Curlew Road hauled unused plywood back for a refund.
"We actually were pleasantly surprised," assistant manager Rhonda Cantu said. "I think that a lot of people are holding onto the products that they purchased because they know that the hurricane season has really just begun."
Across the North Suncoast, stores and restaurants reported that buying patterns were back to normal for a rainy Saturday.
The Publix supermarket in Brooksville sold far fewer batteries and bottles of water than it had earlier in the week, said Sue Ortiz, assistant manager. "Today it's mostly regular groceries, but the weather's been so bad they really haven't been shopping that much," she said.
A salesman at Love Nissan on U.S. 19 in Homosassa Springs in Citrus County said business was starting to return.
"We had four or five sales today," said salesman Leroy Gallagher, 63, at Love Nissan. "That's a little less than a normal Saturday, but not totally wasted."
As the rain continued through the afternoon, calls to pizza restaurants and other delivery joints mounted.
"Once it starts raining, the phones light up and out go the pizzas," said Debbie Raynor, general manager of the Pizza Hut at 8380 Seminole Blvd. in Seminole.
Raynor was in the restaurant Friday doing paperwork as the storm approached.
"I had some people call," she said. "I didn't answer the phone. I didn't want to tell anyone no."
Jack Ceccarelli did not have any problems saying it.
At 4 p.m., four hours after his wife dragged him to International Plaza, he told her he was through.
"I'm ready to go back to quarantine," he said.
Times staff writers Dan DeWitt, Lucy Morgan, Jorge Sanchez and Steve Thompson and correspondents Marsha Strickhouser and Pam Leavy contributed to this report.
