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JENNIFER LIBERTO and WILL VAN SANTRoadways became too hazardous for even emergency personnel. Homes sustained damage and electricity went out in Frances' wake.
Hernando County had weathered the worst of Hurricane Frances by Sunday evening, but the storm's savage strength had toppled trees onto homes and cars and peeled roofs from homes.
No major injuries had been reported. But pelting, horizontal rain and powerful wind gusts had caused several car accidents and had strewn trees and power lines onto roads and houses, causing at least one house fire in Spring Hill.
Hernando County had issued a mandatory evacuation for all residents living in mobile homes and in low-lying areas. About 1,200 people had filled the county's six open shelters on Sunday.
Rainfall was more moderate than expected. The east side of the county received between 2 and 4 inches and the west side about 1 to 2 inches, although more rain was expected overnight.
Gusts that ranged up to 75 mph hour had ripped roofs and awnings from mobile homes in communities such as High Point. Elsewhere, 30 mobile homes reportedly sustained substantial roof damage. The storm chewed up mobile homes at Tall Oaks Village and at Clover Leaf Farms in Brooksville.
"I hope to God there was nobody in them," emergency management director Tom Leto said. "That's why we told them to leave."
Wind gusts also wreaked havoc on some fixed homes as far west as Hernando Beach. Chief Dan Chichester, who leads the Hernando Beach Volunteer Fire District, found the roof of his Gulf Winds Circle home in his yard.
"It's just one of those things. In '93 it was flooding; this time it's just the roof," said Chichester, who had taken refuge at a new home under construction when the gusts hit his home.
A tree fell onto a white Pontiac sedan driving north on Snow Memorial Highway, north of Brooksville on Sunday afternoon. A limb crushed Steve Oehm's windshield and caused his car to careen off the road. But Oehm was not injured.
Dozens of trees had fallen on power lines, especially on the east side of the county, sending dangerous live wires across roads such as Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and North Avenue in Brooksville.
Early Sunday morning, outages left some 30,000 without power, mostly on the west side of the county. Electricity had been restored to all but 12,000 residents by afternoon.
By 5 p.m., some 42,600 customers, about a third of the county, were again without power.
At least two of the county's emergency shelters had also lost power at some point on Sunday.
Trees had made many roads in eastern Hernando County impassable, including the eastbound lanes of State Road 50 going into Sumter County. More downed trees, power outages and blocked roads are likely through the morning hours, officials said.
"Road conditions have deteriorated," Hernando County Sheriff Richard Nugent said. "This is only going to get worse."
Law enforcement, Hernando County Fire Rescue and the county's Public Works Department had pulled crews and ambulances off the roads by 2:30 p.m. Sunday and were only responding to life-threatening situations.
"This is the frustrating phase of an event like this," Leto said. "You know there are people out there who need your help. You know that."
But as the storm worsened, the roads grew too dangerous for even emergency crews. One fire rescue driver nearly lost control of his ambulance, while driving about 40 mph through fierce winds.
"It was all he could do to hold it on the road," firefighter Sam Flippo said.
Hernando County public works director Charles Mixson said it was impossible to clear blocked roads, given the storm conditions. But he expected a busy day for cleanup crews today.
In addition to fierce winds, Frances brought some flooding to parts of Brooksville, Ridge Manor and low-lying areas on the county's east side. The hurricane was expected to bring a storm surge of 2 to 3 feet along the coast Sunday night.
The National Weather Service issued a flood warning for the Withlacoochee River and estimated the river would start to rise above flood stage early Monday morning with a crest at midweek.
Hernando Beach and Pine Island residents reported no major flooding Sunday, although high tide was expected about 7:30 p.m.
"So far, it's nothing compared to the no-name storm (of March 1993)," said Pine Island resident Bill Cope, who recorded about half an inch of rain and winds ranging from 30 to 50 mph near his home.
Hospitals had reported no major hurricane-related injuries late Sunday. However, trees fell on two cars parked in the Brooksville Regional Hospital parking lot, chief executive Tom Barb said.
Evergreen Health and Rehabilitation Center in Spring Hill and Brooksville Regional Hospital were both running on generators due to lost power on Sunday evening.
"We'll be on generators for a while, but we've got enough (generator power) to fuel us for five days," Barb said.
Oak Hill Hospital's emergency room took in 50 patients Sunday, but the only hurricane-related injuries were minor car accidents, chief executive Mickey Smith said. The hospital didn't lose power Sunday. In fact, the hospital's biggest storm problem was finding a place to house discharged patients who couldn't get home.
Trees, branches and Spanish moss littered otherwise eerily quiet roads for a Labor Day weekend. Few residents ventured out, heeding the advice of emergency officials and law enforcement. In fact, police cars and utility vehicles constituted most of the traffic.
The sign on top of Farmer John's restaurant on Howell Avenue in Brooksville collapsed. The wind crumpled real estate signs and carried election campaign signs down roadways.
Traffic signals were out throughout the county, and water filled ditches beside roads.
Most businesses and gas stations remained closed. But the few that braved the storm found business surprisingly brisk. They catered mostly to law enforcement and storm-weary public servants.
"It's been pretty wild," said Landon Coffey, a car hop at the Sonic Drive-In in Brooksville, which had to call in 10 employees to handle the load. "I had an $80 order from a police officer, and I got a pretty good tip."
At the county emergency operations center, workers fielded calls from frightened residents, many of whom who had not heeded the mandatory evacuation order.
Residents reported high winds and rain seeping in underneath doors.
With the storm upon them, they asked for someone to fetch them from harm's way and get them to safety.
But tropical storm force winds made it too dangerous to send help, Leto said.
"Just bunker down and do the very best you can," Leto said. "At this point there is not very much that we can do."
Even the county Animal Services shelter was crowded Sunday, as the county had taken in dozens of evacuees' pets. The kennel's population had swelled to include an extra 69 dogs, 27 cats and two guinea pigs, manager Liana Teague said.
The Hernando County Airport remained closed Sunday, and deputy director Rob Mills, who lives close to the airport, said heavy wind and rain pounded the area. But nobody would be able to inspect the airport until weather had passed today, he said.
Strong wind and rain are expected to pelt the county throughout today.
As soon as safely possible, firefighters and law enforcement officers plan to hit the streets and report the locations of downed trees and wires to local energy companies and the Department of Public Works.
The damage assessment teams, made up of emergency workers and personnel from the Building Department and Property Appraiser's Office, were to head out at first light.
Plans call for opening schools as scheduled Tuesday, and officials hope to rely on area churches to house Frances refugees whose homes may be too damaged to safely occupy.
Although no looting was reported, Nugent said a rogue tree service was driving around the Spring Hill area Sunday afternoon, asking an outrageous sum, $1,200, to remove fallen trees.
"They are taking advantage of people who are panicked," said Nugent, who planned to charge the tree service with price gouging, if he caught them.
Staff writers Logan Neill and Daniel Wallace contributed to this report.