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SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER and BRADY DENNISPolice, electric companies, solid waste workers and hospitals struggle to clean up the mess left by Frances.
TAMPA - Frances sloshed through weeks ago, but in Hillsborough County, its ghost lingers on.
Its residue is visible in police reports and potholes, in burned-out streetlights and smoldering piles of brush.
Just as life inches back toward normalcy, all eyes have turned east, waiting for a storm named Jeanne.
Tampa's solid waste director David McCary never expected the city to have to guard its debris piles. More on that later.
In recent weeks, workers have chipped away at an estimated 300,000 cubic yards of debris left behind by the storm. McCary said crews nearly have finished one pass through the city and will start on a second by Sunday.
The city even created a debris hotline for citizens who want their storm items picked up. The number is 232-6862. But the debris doesn't stop at the Tampa city limits. Hillsborough County Public Works director Bob Gordon said workers have picked up about 75,000 cubic yards of debris left by the storm outside of Tampa. He estimates there's still 30,000 to 50,000 cubic yards to go.
"We're making headway and doing the best we can," McCary said. "Certainly, there's been a lot of overtime."
Both the city and county have hired outside contractors to help with the cleanup. But with the effort has come unexpected consequences.
Late Wednesday, a huge brush fire erupted at Gadsen Park near MacDill Air Force Base, where workers were storing piles of debris. McCary said investigators suspect mischievous children started the blaze, and firefighters managed to keep it under control.
Now, the city is providing security at the site from about 7 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Someone, McCary said, must guard the debris.
Local law enforcement officers have had more than debris to keep them occupied.
Emergency calls. Road closures. Fears of looting and insurance scams.
Oh, and johns from the Big Easy.
On Monday, three men from Louisiana in town for the post-storm cleanup were arrested on charges of trying to pick up a police officer posing as a prostitute in Seminole Heights.
According to a Tampa police report, the men - Jeffrey Maglothin, 21, Dusty Poole, 18, and Samuel Jones, 18 - were traveling in a green Chevrolet pickup truck at about 4:35 p.m.. The truck, which had a large trailer on the back, stopped near E Lambright Street and Nebraska Avenue where undercover officers were conducting a prostitution sting.
The men waved over a female officer posing as a prostitute, according to the police report.
"We're just cleanin' stuff up, what ya doin'?" one of the men asked the officer.
She replied: "Datin'."
The conversation continued, and according to police, the men offered to pay her $40 for sex.
The three were arrested, charged with solicitation and released after posting bail of $250 each, jail records show.
"I guess they left Bourbon Street for Nebraska Avenue," police spokesman Joe Durkin said, "looking for some night life."
Meanwhile, Tampa detectives continue investigating a man charged with breaking into the John Lynch Foundation as Hurricane Charley churned toward Tampa Bay, leaving downtown all but abandoned. They say they've tied Paul Dana Doucette, 37, to other burglaries and thefts, and there could be more.
Durkin and Hillsborough Sheriff's spokesman Lt. Rod Reder said looting never became a significant problem, but Frances-related injuries and road problems kept both agencies busy.
In some cases, that meant dealing with death.
A longtime Tampa Electric Co. employee died in Brandon when a limb snapped off an oak and fell more than 20 feet to the ground where he was standing. William Glenn Poole, 53, died while supervising an out-of-state crew removing trees from power lines so that electricity could be restored to homes on S Echo Drive.
Also, a traffic fatality on Sheldon Road was blamed on a vehicle that was speeding and didn't have working windshield wipers during the stormy Labor Day weekend when Frances passed through.
In Thonotosassa, a strong current in the Tampa Bypass Canal - created because the dam gates were open following Frances' heavy rain - pulled a 23-year-old swimmer under.
Sheriff's dive team members recovered Eric Downey's body two days later.
Asked if his agency has had more animal sightings and complaints, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesman Gary Morse didn't skip a beat: "Oh, heck, yeah."
"You have a lot more snake complaints. We've had alligators getting into places they don't normally get, like people's driveways," Morse said. "The animals are all looking for higher ground. But that's not our primary concern. We've got 200 officers in the Panhandle now helping out."
Besides, he said, there's an upside to Frances passing through and disrupting so many things.
"A storm like this rejuvenates the wildlife habitat," Morse said. "It's part of the natural cycle of nature."
Morse said wind and rain from a powerful storm clears out some of the old plant growth and fertilizes the soil. A storm like Frances also cleans out underbrush and knocks out some of the overhead trees that for years blocked natural light from plants and other growth.
Stronger currents clean out the muck in rivers.
"This is a disaster for people and some animals, yes," Morse said. "But it does good for our system. It takes the plant community back to a younger time."
Here, at least, the power has returned.
"We're pretty much buttoned up," said Tampa Electric spokesman Ross Bannister.
More than 268,000 customers lost power during Frances, though most of them had it back within four days.
Even so, Bannister said the company pretty much suspended normal operations for a month to concentrate on recovering from the storm.
It sent workers to South Florida and to the Panhandle to help with other efforts. It housed and fed local crews working around the clock to turn the power back on.
As a result, the regular chores remain. Streetlights need fixing. Electricity at some new construction sites has stalled. Meter reading is behind.
All in good time, Bannister said.
"Until we are out of those emergency operations," he said, "that stuff, understandably, has to sit off to the side."
At St. Joseph's Hospital, the emergency room grew busy after Frances.
People had fallen from ladders and roofs and trees. They'd shattered windows and cut themselves while putting up plywood. They'd slashed themselves with chain saws; one man came in with three fingers cut off.
"We saw a big spike," said hospital spokesman Will Darnell. "People haven't touched a chain saw in years or had to climb up on ladders or roofs. I think people are rusty."
The injuries, the debris, the road closures, the fires all have begun to wane. For now.
Hurricane season marches on.
"Frances is yesterday's tuna fish," said John Dunn, spokesman for Tampa General Hospital. "We're looking at Jeanne now, man."
Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler can be reached at 813 226-3373 or svansickler@sptimes.com . Brady Dennis can be reached at (813) 226-3386 or dennis@sptimes.com