Frances and Jeanne are mere memories to most, but not in the towns along the river, where homeowners, businessmen and even golfers are still dealing with flooding.
By DAN DeWITT
Published October 17, 2004
[Times photo: Daniel Wallace]
After a four-year drought that left Nobleton Canoe Rental high and dry, Bob Meers now has more water than he wants at his home on the Withlacoochee River in Nobleton. He lost his typical take in September: $17,000. FEMA has offered no help. Canoes are still not allowed on the river during the flood stage.
Bob Meers, the owner of Nobleton Canoe Rental, says flooding on the Withlacoochee River has all but shut down his business since late August.
"We haven't rented a canoe in two months," Meers said last week.
He had hoped for help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, whose response to Meers' request arrived in the mail Thursday morning. His son, Charlie, opened the envelope, sat on a bench on the front porch and read the bad news aloud.
Because the flooding had caused no physical damage to Meers' home or business, the agency could not offer any help, the letter stated, concluding with words that Charlie Meers almost spit out:
"Total amount received: zero dollars."
So it is along the Withlacoochee River, which flows through eastern Hernando County from Trilby to Istachatta. Long after most of the county has put the problems of this year's historic hurricane season behind it, riverside residents are still suffering.
The rains from the storms, especially Frances and Jeanne, caused some of the worst flooding in recent history, inundating the yards and/or living spaces of 94 homes, said Tom Leto, the county's emergency management director.
At least six families have asked the county for help finding temporary housing; many more have sought help from FEMA or the American Red Cross. Leto is not sure how many, partly because the flooded homes are inaccessible and, in many cases, vacated.
"Many of the elevated homes are totally surrounded, almost like they are in a lake, so it is incredibly difficult to make assessments," Leto said.
The water is receding, but ever so slowly.
The Withlacoochee's recent crest at Trilby, though far below the highest level ever measured - more than 20 feet in the spring of 1960 - reached 16.5 feet during the first week of October. That level almost precisely matched the El Nino crest in January 1998.
Although this flood has not been quite as prolonged as the one six years ago, the river remained at 14.7 feet Friday, nearly 3 feet above flood stage; at Croom, farther north, the river was at 10.3 feet Friday, more than a foot above flood stage.
It isn't expected to settle down for at least another two weeks, said Todd Hamill, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service's Southeast River Forecast Center in Georgia.
That, he said, is because the storms brought rain to the Withlacoochee basin every few days for several weeks in a row.
"We were just getting rain on top of rain," Hamill said. "That means it takes a very, very long time for the water to get out of the system."
The scene in Istachatta
Erlene Kapiton's losses have been minor.
A martin house that she mounted low to keep it out of the high winds is now nearly inundated by tannin water. "It's going to be a turtle house soon," Kapiton said.
The river has overwhelmed a goldfish pond that she tried, too late, to protect with sandbags.
"They were a good 10 inches long," she said of the goldfish. "Some bass probably had a good, bright orange snack."
Some of her neighbors on Peterson Camp Road, just south of the Citrus County line, have been less fortunate, especially residents of about 10 mobile homes on an artificial island surrounded by canals.
Water has seeped into some of the homes, and all of the residents of the island evacuated, including a 92-year-old man who was temporarily stranded by the rising water.
"He's legally blind and can't hear. We were lucky enough to get a boat so we could go get him," said Kapiton, who has owned her house since 1965 and lived there full time since 1988.
The only time she remembers worse flooding was in 1985, when Hurricane Elena hovered in the Gulf of Mexico, dumping rain in Hernando for days before heading north.
Nobleton
From a business point of view, Bob Meers said, the storms came at the worst possible time. The Labor Day break is his busiest weekend, and September his busiest month, when he typically takes in $17,000 from canoe and kayak rentals.
The river has been closed to canoes since it reached flood stage because of safety considerations, he said. After a party of paddlers inquired about a trip the Saturday before last, and Meers received temporary permission for the trip from the county, an employee with the state Division of Forestry told him he would be fined $350.
Still, he said, the losses this year are dwarfed by the ones caused by the drought that began as soon as the El Nino floods receded, and lasted until 2002.
"We went through a four-year drought," Meers said. "After that, I can handle anything."
Evidence of flooding was obvious late last week during a drive south from Nobleton. Parts of Croom Rital Road were covered with water, though passable. On the west side of the road, the river has flooded three low-lying holes at Sherman Hills Golf Club; the club offers customers a complete round by allowing them to replay the first three holes, said Robert Little, the assistant pro.
"We're still doing well, and the people have been very understanding," Little said.
Ridge Manor
Claudie and Nell Moody have not been doing so well. They live in one of the county's most severely flooded neighborhoods, on Lakewood Drive in Ridge Manor, just east of Lake Geneva.
Lakes fed by the river tend to crest later than the river itself, said Leto, the county's emergency management director. The Moodys said the water on their street was still rising Thursday. The owners of several flooded homes in the neighborhood had parked their cars in the Moodys' yard. Nell Moody, 79, said she was worried they might not be safe there for long.
The floodwaters advanced across their side yard Wednesday night to the base of one exterior wall. A wheelchair ramp leading to the back yard ended in a puddle. When Moody reached over the side of the ramp with her cane, its tip disappeared in several inches of water.
"This was dry yesterday, and you can see how it is now," she said.
Her son and two daughters have been busy at work, she said. Her 89-year-old husband is mostly confined to his recliner.
"That's why we don't have any sandbags in," she said.
Trilby
George Creller, 43, said he had heard that Talisman Estates flooded regularly when he bought a mobile home there a year ago and moved from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
But he never thought the river could rise high enough to flood his house, which abuts Reynolds Street, the main road into the community on the north side of the river.
Now Creller knows better. He has been displaced from his mobile home for two weeks, splitting his time between relatives' homes in Tampa and Inverness. He returned Thursday to assess the damage and clean up, though he still cannot move back.
He built a path of wooden pallets across his yard so he can walk across it without wading through muck. The floor of his mobile home will have to be replaced, as will the carpet that covered it. He does not have insurance, he said, but has applied for a grant from FEMA.
Despite his troubles, he has no plans to return and face the winters in northern Michigan.
"It's still nice here," Creller said, sipping a Busch. "I'm staying."
