By DONG-PHUONG NGUYEN, MICHAEL VAN SICKLER
Published September 9, 2004
TAMPA - Owad Assan's temper rose Wednesday like the water covering Morris Bridge Road.
Assan, traveling his favorite back-country route home, found part of it blocked during his afternoon commute because of rising floodwaters caused by the recent storm.
Officials erected a "Street Closed" sign about 6 a.m Wednesday, forcing perhaps hundreds of commuters to maneuver U-turns.
Assan, a 40-year-old gas station manager, was one of them.
He turned around, drove south on Interstate 75 and turned right on the only other north-south road into New Tampa: Bruce B. Downs Boulevard. And since Tuesday, that road has had its two northbound lanes closed because of - what else? - flooding.
So a 20-minute trip to Assan's Cross Creek home became a 90-minute odyssey.
"Monday morning, with all the rain, this road wasn't bad," Assan said. "Now you can't drive on it. I don't understand. I always try to avoid Bruce B. Downs because it's always very congested, but now I have no choice. This isn't good."
The Hillsborough River at Morris Bridge Road was expected to rise another 5 inches today, more than 2 feet above flood stage, according to the National Weather Service.
Although some floodwaters were receding, three other Hillsborough County trouble spots remained: the Alafia River at Lithia, the Little Manatee River at Wimauma and neighborhoods around Fowler Avenue in the University Mall area. And to the north, in Pasco and Hernando counties, rivers were still bedeviling residents. By Tuesday, Pasco's Anclote River, which floods at 20 feet, had reached more than 23.5 feet before cresting. On Wednesday, it continued to top 23 feet and showed no sign of receding quickly.
"This is the worst I've seen it, and it just keeps getting worse," said Johnny White, 44, who has lived in Elfers for 24 years.
The river used to flood every three or four years. Then every year. This summer the neighborhood has slipped under water three times.
"We're always on TV," White said. "Other people may flood, but I don't think they flood like we do. This time, I just don't know what to do."
The scene was much the same in southeastern Hernando County, where the Withlacoochee River kept rising Wednesday.
Flooding covered roads in Ridge Manor, Masaryktown and near Bystre Lake, although there were no reports of water inundating homes. Talena Sweet and a half-dozen family members went to the Ridge Manor Community Center to fill the back of a pickup with sandbags.
"It's up to my back door now. That's why I'm getting sandbags. I saw a gator in my back yard yesterday," said Sweet, 38, who lives with her three children in a mobile home in Talisman Estates in southeastern Hernando.
Residents in the mobile home community, considered the most flood-prone in Hernando County, have watched water from the Withlacoochee fill their streets and yards in the past three days.
Floodwaters are expected to keep rising, but not as far as forecasters previously thought, said Todd Hamill of the National Weather Service's Southeast River Forecast Center in Georgia.
On Tuesday, the center's forecast was for the Withlacoochee to crest at 15.3 feet at the gauge at Trilby, where flood stage is 12 feet.
The floodwater is now expected to top out at 13.7 feet, about 2 inches higher than it was Wednesday afternoon.
The river will likely recede more slowly than expected, he said, and it could remain above flood stage for another week. And routine summer thunderstorms could send it back above its current level, he warned.
If Hurricane Ivan comes anywhere near Hernando County, he said, the results would be disastrous.
"We have to watch those areas very closely, because they are so wet," Hamill said.
The same worries are on the minds of Hillsborough emergency officials. "There are still serious flood problems," said Dexter Barge, who heads the county's damage assessment team. "The water is going down, not very fast, but it's receding."
Meteorologists are predicting a 40 to 50 percent chance of rain through the weekend, with scattered thunderstorms.
"We're not expecting widespread heavy rains to aggravate the flood conditions, but it will still rain here and there," said Tom Dougherty, forecaster for the National Weather Service.
That can't be good news for officials who have been canvassing Hillsborough County, assessing damage and trying to restore sewage lift stations that have not been functioning because of power outages.
This led Hillsborough officials to ask people to limit flushing their toilets, running washing machines and doing other things that produce sewage until the problem is solved.
The area near University Mall was particularly hard hit.
For the third day in a row, residents living on N 15th Street near Fowler Avenue slogged through floodwaters that appeared without warning Monday in their low-lying neighborhood.
Rains deposited by Hurricane Frances had overwhelmed the drainage system and sent water pouring over the banks of a large retention pond off N 17th Street, inundating cars, homes and businesses with 4 to 6 feet of water.
According to county Public Works director Bob Gordon, Tampa's pipes were too small to handle the rush of water that flowed south through the county's drainage system.
The city and county Wednesday furiously pumped a retention pond south of Fowler Avenue in hopes of creating room for the extra water.
The effort showed signs of progress.
Sidewalks appeared through the murky water while cars and people found travel less of a chore.
To the south, residents took comfort in small gains, even as they worried about storm forecasts.
Along the Alafia River in Valrico, floodwaters fell about 2 feet Wednesday, but River Drive and Squirrel Run Way remained under water, said Karen Wagner, who lives along the Alafia.
"Things are looking up," she said, "but anything can happen."
Times staff writers Bill Varian, Will Van Sant, Dan DeWitt, Jennifer Liberto and Melia Bowie contributed to this report. Dong-Phuong Nguyen can be reached at 813-226-3403 or nguyen@sptimes.com
