TAMPA - When this city went to bed Sunday night, it looked like the nightmare had passed. Frances had finally moved offshore.
Then came morning light, and sights such as these:
A water scooter spraying water as it roared over a flooded Bayshore Boulevard.
Brown water bubbling up through a manhole in South Tampa, sending sewage inside $300,000 homes.
A long line of senior citizens being evacuated from a soaked nursing home.
Tampa got its worst flooding in decades Monday, courtesy of a storm that never seemed to end.
Mayor Pam Iorio, who put on rubber boots to wade through the high waters herself, said the drenching even surpassed what happened during the no-name storm of 1993, another high mark for floods.
Monday's tidal waves and storm rains backed up the city's 107-year-old stormwater pipes.
About half of the pumping stations that move water out of city streets weren't working.
Sewage from hundreds of homes overflowed into one area on Coachman Avenue in South Tampa.
In Sulphur Springs, residents had to wade through contaminated water to get out of their homes.
The Hillsborough River stretched far over its banks, swallowing up streets and blanketing front yards by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in West Tampa.
At least 196 trees fell, 129 traffic signals lost power and 73 roads were swamped, county officials said.
And there's more to come.
The Alafia River is expected to flood at least 9 feet today, drowning about 60 homes in Lithia.
State meteorologists say it could be the worst flooding there in 40 years.
It got so bad that Tampa Police had to deploy two amphibious tanks Monday to rescue cars stuck underwater on Bayshore Boulevard.
Joe Collier, 41, rode his Yamaha Waverunner down the six lanes of Bayshore, dodging fire hydrants all the way.
"They will need a no-wake sign on Bayshore," he said.
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Even as the storm passed over Hillsborough, there were signs that it would level a parting blow.
On Sunday, the waters of Hillsborough Bay had receded so far that people could walk 100 yards on dry land into the bay. On Monday, those waters came roaring back, crashing over the balustrades on Bayshore Boulevard.
Meteorologists had warned that Frances' winds could drive water back into Tampa Bay, causing a storm surge. Officials said the surge ended up being 4 to 6 feet.
During the night, the backed-up water and rain crept toward Charles and Cynthia Hogue's house on W Paxton Avenue in Ballast Point. The couple put sandbags in front of their doors, but the water kept inching closer.
By midmorning, the Hogues were wading through ankle-deep water in every room of their house. Cynthia Hogue, 69, glanced out the window as a carload of teenagers rode in front of their home, sending waves of water inside with each joy ride.
"I wish they'd get stuck," she said.
Clothing and important documents, sealed in plastic bags, lay strewn across their bed. Among the papers were notebooks from the Hogues' ongoing fight with city officials about stormwater drainage problems.
"We have fought this for years and years," Cynthia Hogue said.
The Hogues plan to rebuild, but other residents said they are ready to give up on the hot South Tampa real estate market.
As she waded through her family room on W Ballast Point Boulevard, Carmen Rodriguez, a 51-year-old bank teller, decided she would not depend on luck again.
"It is time to move," Rodriguez said. "Forget it. I'm done."
Others could afford to laugh at nature's fury. In Beach Park, the tide stopped just short of waterfront mansions worth millions of dollars.
"It's all part of living across the street from the bay, you know?" said Vilda Volpi, who moved here about six years ago. As she spoke, neighbors paddled two kayaks on the street a few yards away.
"Watch out for those water moccasins!" she yelled.
In several neighborhoods, a few feet meant the difference between a soggy yard and a water-logged living room.
In Town 'N Country, some residents slogged through living rooms while Jeff Giannetti and his girlfriend, Donna Verrington, walked dry-footed through her home.
"I got lucky," said Giannetti, whose house across the street also was untouched. "It got right to the edge."
Near University Mall, more than 100 senior citizens at the Sunrise Village assisted living facility had to be evacuated when water seeped in about 1 p.m.
"All of a sudden the water was 2 feet high," said Hillsborough Sheriff's deputy Buddy Rudolph. Rescue workers wheeled residents through the water on stretchers. John Munk, a nurse at the facility, said a few residents seemed to enjoy the commotion.
"This is the most adventure they've had in a long time," he said.
In the nearby University Area neighborhood, workers also rescued scores of people trapped by water in apartments on N 15th Street.
Officials paddled to the apartments in row boats, where they found one woman who was nine months pregnant, a blind man and dozens of children.
Then, in the afternoon, the sun finally peeked through the clouds.
On Davis Islands, people walked their dogs along flooded streets. On Channel Drive, a sport utility vehicle pulled a kayak with two girls on board as the rising water from the channel pummeled the road.
On the Davis Islands bridge, a couple looked over the water and smooched. A mile away in Hyde Park, athletes had no intention of letting even a historic flood break their routine.
A marathon runner raced down Swann Avenue, getting her miles in.
Times staff writers Sherri Day, Paul de la Garza, Josh Zimmer, Babita Persaud, Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler, Chris Ave, Dong-Phuong Nguyen, Joni James, Stefanie Boyar, Michelle Jones and Cathy Wos contributed to this report.
