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If clouds cooperate, flooding may recede
The Withlacoochee River may retreat by the weekend if the area can avoid heavy rains.
By RICK GERSHMAN
Published July 20, 2005
RIDGE MANOR - A rusty yellow "No Outlet" sign advises drivers who pass this road off Reynolds Street in the Talisman Estates subdivision.
No outlet? Right now this limerock and dirt road barely has an inlet.
Tucked deep in the southeast corner of Hernando County, running up to the banks of the Withlacoochee River, Tarzan Street has the distinction of flooding rather consistently, especially this time of year.
Tuesday, almost the entire street was impassable by car. Want to cross Tarzan without a canoe? Better find a good, strong vine and swing across.
The river at Trilby was nearly a foot above flood stage (12 feet) earlier this week, but relief appears to be on the way. The National Weather Service on Tuesday predicted the river will crest and fall below flood stage early Friday and get down to about 11 feet by Sunday.
"The people out there, they're prepared, they've done this before," said Mark Tobert, county preparedness and response coordinator.
The flooded area is just north of the Hernando-Pasco county line and just south of the Engle Christmas Tree Farm. It helped that while Pinellas and Hillsborough counties got battered by heavy rains Tuesday afternoon, that system missed Hernando - and most of the Green Swamp, which feeds the Withlacoochee - in large part.
The National Weather Service forecast a 40 percent chance of thunderstorms for the area today, 30 percent Thursday and 50 percent Friday and Saturday. Certain areas of the county received up to 5 inches of rainfall last week, weather officials said.
Tuesday afternoon, two teenagers seemed unperturbed by the flooding in Ridge River Estates, across U.S. 301 from Talisman Estates. Crista Aber and her brother Ken, visiting relatives, waded in a makeshift pool of river water that covered their relatives' front yard. They splashed around with their ebullient pal Mars, a 2-year-old yellow Labrador.
"We wanted to play in the river anyway," said Crista, 14, "and this way (our aunt) says she knows we won't wash away."
[Last modified July 20, 2005, 00:57:15]
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