After a maddeningly slow approach that frayed the patience of Tampa Bay area residents, Hurricane Frances inched across the region Sunday as a tropical storm - weaker than when it struck Florida but strong enough to make a bad memory.
"It's like, somebody give me a bottle of aspirin," said Russell Henes, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Ruskin.
By the time the storm's center moved over the gulf toward the Panhandle early this morning, the Suncoast had kept its streak alive, once again avoiding a hurricane's full force.
Nearly 380,000 area customers were without power Sunday. About 15,000 people were in shelters. There were widespread reports of downed trees, shorn roofs and car accidents, including a fatal crash near Tampa in which bad weather may have played a role. Rains caused a leak at a Cargill fertilizer plant in Gibsonton that may take days to clean up.
The Sunshine Skyway bridge remained closed Sunday night because of high winds, and Sprint PCS wireless customers from Citrus to Charlotte counties were without service after the company shut down its wireless switch in Tampa Sunday night.
Overall, however, the area appeared to weather Frances with no catastrophes.
Pinellas' beaches got the worst of this sluggish beast as its circling bands spiraled out into the gulf. With no land mass to slow them down, the bands soaked up energy and boomeranged back toward the coast with renewed power. One of Sunday's highest wind gust readings came from Clearwater Beach - 64 mph.
Gulf waters were 2 to 4 feet above normal, Henes said. "It's working on the beaches, there's no doubt about it."
Still, a survey of beach communities late Sunday found little major property damage.
A traditional Labor Day of barbecues and boating was out of the question as Frances' blustery caboose was expected to hang over the region through today with rain and more wind gusts of more than 40 mph.
Also, sections of several area rivers were expected to rise past flood stage today, Tuesday and Wednesday. Among them were the Withlacoochee in northeast Pasco County, the Alafia in eastern Hillsborough County, and the Little Manatee River at Wimauma, southeast of Tampa. The weather service predicted minor to moderate flooding in those and other areas.
Frances sliced diagonally across Polk County and passed through northeast Hillsborough before exiting the west coast over the Pasco/Pinellas county line.
Though the storm, on the whole, left an unimpressive mark in Tampa Bay, some experienced a fury they won't soon forget.
"I got hit in the face with the wind, and I fell on my back and my glasses fell off," said Joanne Gallagher, who became trapped in a stairwell at the Clearwater Beach Marriott Suites. She and her husband, Bob, had tried once to open the door and crawl along the outside walkway to their seventh-floor room, but Frances had quickly chased them back in. As Bob Gallagher went to grab her, a gust of wind reached into his pocket and swiped the key to his suite.
Like the Gallaghers, all the guests at the hotel had to use the stairs to reach their rooms because the elevators were not functioning. Bob Gallagher called the front desk for help, using his cell phone. Fifteen minutes later, assistant general manager Eric Waltz blew through the door with a maintenance worker. The group pushed its way outside, crouching and crawling on the walkway.
"Stay low and hold on to the handrails," yelled maintenance technician Josh Johannesen.
The Gallaghers, of Dallas, were in town celebrating their 40th anniversary.
Tropical Storm Frances appeared to be leaving Pinellas County by 8:30 p.m. Wind speeds were measured at about 25 miles per hour at St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport. Weaker winds opened the way for the county's recovery effort. Sunstar Ambulances returned to the roads. Sheriff deputies and police officers went out to mobile home parks and began inspecting, to see if it was safe for people to return.
In Tampa, a power outage shut off Sprint PCS' wireless switch earlier Sunday, which manages wireless traffic to its bay area transmission sites, Sprint spokesman Nancy Schwartz said.
However, when a backup generator also malfunctioned, the switch began relying on a backup battery. Because of concerns that running out the battery could damage the switch, Sprint technicians decided to shut it off about 9 p.m., Schwartz said. She said the company doesn't know when it will restore service.
Power outages also knocked out more than 20 traffic signals, according to police spokesman Joe Durkin. Another 100 intersections were out in the county, according to Hillsborough sheriff's spokesman Lt. Rod Reder.
Sheriff's officials were considering deploying court bailiffs to work those intersections.
One man died and a woman was injured in a traffic accident on Sheldon Road. Officials said the car was speeding and neither person inside was wearing seat belts. One was trying to reach outside the car to wipe the windshield, the car lost control and hit a wall.
David Beauregard watched the sky Sunday, wondering whether the worst was yet to come each time the winds picked up and the rains fell harder.
The 50-year-old homeless man said he tried to find shelter Saturday but couldn't. With the bus service suspended for the storm, Beauregard said he had few options and no way to get to safety.
"It's very rough, very depressing," he said, pacing downtown Tampa's Fort Brooke Parking Garage for a dry space, away from the winds. "I've just been wandering. Trying to stay dry."
In Pasco County, the worst was yet to come for residents along the Anclote, Hillsborough and Withlacoochee rivers.
Forecasters expect all three rivers to reach flood levels in Pasco County this week as rain drains into the waterways.
By Tuesday morning, the Anclote River at Elfers could reach 21.9 feet - nearly 2 feet above flood level, and almost 1 foot above the high water mark of the river's Aug. 12 flood. Parts of Elfers Parkway could be under water.
The Hillsborough River near Zephyrhills could rise by Wednesday morning to 10.5 feet, a half-foot above flood level.
And the Withlacoochee River at Trilby could swell to 14.4 feet by Wednesday afternoon, 2.4 feet above flood level. Nearby campgrounds could become flooded, and a handful of homes could become isolated.
Michele Baker, Pasco County's director of emergency management, said of residents along the rivers: "If they don't have a canoe or a raft, they should leave" until the flooding subsides.
Early Sunday afternoon in Hernando County, Frances ripped off awnings and roofs at the High Point mobile home park in Brooksville.
"I hope to God there was nobody in them," said Tom Leto, the county's emergency management director. "That's why we told them to leave."
Leto spoke from the county's emergency center, where workers fielded calls from frightened residents. Many had not heeded an evacuation order of mobile homes and low-lying areas threatened by floods. Now they wanted someone to fetch them.
But with winds of between 40 to 70 mph, Leto said it was too dangerous to send help. "Just bunker down and do the very best you can," Leto told residents. "At this point there is not very much that we can do."
In Citrus County, Progress Energy Corp. reported wind gusts of 66 mph at the nuclear plant complex in Crystal River, and sustained winds of 40 mph.
Thousands were left without electricity. And countless tree limbs and branches littered the county's roads and yards.
Damage reports came in spades. Wind gusts ripped a metal roof off Pete's Pier in Crystal River. A tree fell on a house in Hernando; no one was hurt. The wind severely damaged the Chevron station at U.S. 41 S and Eden Drive. A tree blocked Highland Boulevard in Inverness just east of Citrus Memorial Hospital.
Frances did not interrupt Sunday morning breakfast.
Many sit-down Inverness restaurants were open, though rain was beginning to soak the region.
At the Huddle House near SR 44 and U.S. 41 S, the griddle sizzled with golden brown hash browns, bacon and sausage patties.
The place was packed with people betting that breakfast could be their last hot meal for a while.
The sign on the clock above the griddle said: "Any Meal, Any Time."
Times staff writers Jay Cridlin, Justin George, Kevin Graham, Bridget Hall Grumet, Louis Hau, Anita Kumar, Jim Ross, Amy Wimmer Schwarb, Eileen Schulte, Will Van Sant, Michael Van Sickler and Josh Zimmer contributed to this report.
