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Hurricane Dennis
Storm's swath touches bay area
By WILL VAN SANT and S.I. ROSENBAUM
Published July 10, 2005
It was still dark in the streets of Brandon when Hurricane Dennis announced itself with lashing rain and howling winds.
Robert Morgan, 56, drinking coffee in his home, saw the wind pick up his heavy wooden shed, flip it in the air and drop it to the ground, where it shattered.
"Spun it like it was nothing," he said.
What Morgan and his neighbors experienced was one of several possible tornadoes from the outer bands of Dennis as it plowed northwest Saturday toward the Panhandle.
For the most part, Dennis brought west-central Florida isolated cases of severe damage and scattered power losses that were quickly being restored. No storm-related deaths or injuries were reported. But Dennis provided a few tense moments.
None of the tornado reports had been confirmed late Saturday, but the National Weather Service was looking into the Brandon burst and similar accounts at 6 a.m. near the Port of Tampa, 2:30 p.m. near Floral City in Citrus County, and a fourth report early Saturday near 34th Street S and Sixth Avenue in St. Petersburg.
Out in the gulf, meanwhile, Dennis was gaining strength.
Weakening to a Category 1 after it crossed Cuba late Friday, Dennis had restrengthened to a Category 3 by late Saturday and showed signs of getting stronger.
The storm was predicted to make landfall Sunday afternoon near the Florida/Alabama border, the same area hammered last year by Hurricane Ivan.
In the Panhandle, state officials and the Federal Emergency Management Agency already were setting up staging areas for recovery efforts. About 1,000 Florida National Guard members from Orlando were on standby in Tallahassee, and another 500 were mobilized to move into the Keys.
While Panhandle residents evacuated the coast and braced for the worst, the Tampa Bay area was dealing with a gray day of sporadic wind gusts and heavy rains, the worst of which hit Brandon.
Hillsborough emergency management officials said 18 homes were damaged, four badly, when high winds struck, snapping trees as if they were toothpicks.
At 9 a.m., Irma Schaefer was in the kitchen of her Bryan Road home, shaking as a neighbor held her hand. Other neighbors were on her roof, nailing a tarp over a hole that was ripped open at 6 a.m.
"You know when people say (a tornado) sounds like a train?" Schaefer said. "Well, it sounded like a train went right through my home."
In Pinellas, officials said they expected gusts of up to 45 mph through Saturday evening as Dennis moved northwest through the gulf. A recommended evacuation of mobile home parks and low-lying areas remained in effect.
High winds also brought bad luck for some Pinellas business owners.
A 60-foot tree toppled in the wind Friday night, taking down a power line and leaving business without power in Keene Plaza.
Stavros Restaurant was one. The tree also ripped out some of the building's wiring, said Laura Callas, whose husband's family owns the Greek-American restaurant.
"We had to throw some food away and we brought some home and tried to cram it into our refrigerator," Callas said. "It could be weeks. It's not a good situation."
Emergency officials in the North Suncoast counties of Pasco, Hernando and Citrus were on guard for any possible shift in the storm's path Saturday.
But aside from the reported tornado in Citrus, Dennis brought little more than foul weather.
"If it didn't have a name, it would just be rain," one Pasco County emergency management staffer said at an 8 a.m. briefing.
In Hernando County, officials were concerned that a storm surge coupled with a high tide early Sunday morning could mean trouble. But no coastal evacuations were planned.
Times staff writers Colleen Jenkins, Emily Anthes, David Karp, Brian White, Eddie Ramirez, Duane Bourne and Joni James contributed to this report. Will Van Sant can be reached at 727 445-4166 or vansant@sptimes.com
[Last modified July 9, 2005, 23:36:03]
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