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Hurricane Wilma

County 'lucked out' in storm

Agencies say the county didn't get the strong winds, heavy rain or flooding they had readied for.

By MICHAEL KRUSE
Published October 25, 2005

	[Times photo: Keri Wiginton]
	Angela Gonzalez and her son Jonathan, 10, try to untangle their kite after flying it on the baseball field at Powell Middle School in Spring Hill on a windy Monday afternoon. Jonathan had the day off from J.D. Floyd Elementary as schools in the county were closed because of the threat of Hurricane Wilma. But the day turned out fair, cool and gusty. "It was fun," said Jonathan, who had never flown a kite before. "But we need gloves." Related content: Andrew Skerritt: Shifting from close shaves to near misses More photos Complete Wilma coverage

What made landfall near Naples on Monday morning as a Category 3 hurricane was just a nuisance about 200 miles up the Gulf Coast in Hernando County, and not much of even that.

Hurricane Wilma's outer-edge effects made for a day here that started a little wet, stayed a little windy and definitely got uncharacteristically cool.

But for crews assembled and at the ready from the Sheriff's Office, electric companies and fire and rescue departments, Wilma brought little more than sweater weather.

"Nothing happened," Hernando County Emergency Management director Tom Leto said late Monday morning. "But that's good. That's a good thing."

"We haven't gotten anything," Spring Hill Fire Rescue dispatch supervisor Larry Foshey said. "We haven't gotten any trees down. We haven't gotten any wires down. We haven't gotten nothing.

"We missed it."

The still-black hours of the early morning were rainy and windy out on the Suncoast Parkway. Streets were slick as dark turned to light. And public schools, Pasco-Hernando Community College and the courts and county government were closed for the day.

Yet winds in Hernando, Leto said, didn't even reach tropical storm force, one-minute average speeds of 39 to 73 mph, and from 10 p.m. Sunday to 10 a.m. Monday, rain accumulation added up to barely more than an inch, according to figures from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The Sheriff's Office had 10 deputies and a road supervisor mobilized as a "special unit," spokeswoman Deputy Donna Black said, "to respond to anything storm-related." They had gotten together at 5:30 a.m., and were released four hours later.

One power line came down at Griffin Road and Creek Hollow, southeast of Brooksville, Black said.

One tree fell over on Comanche Street in far northeastern Hernando near Istachatta.

One transformer blew at the corner of Comanche and Cherokee Road.

No flooding was reported.

"There was minimal debris," Black said. "But nothing major."

At 11 a.m., Progress Energy Florida was reporting 117 customers without power in Hernando, spokeswoman Cherie Jacobs said, and all of them had power again by the middle of the afternoon.

The Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative had some scattered outages, too, caused by fallen branches, but power in those few spots was restored before noon, according to spokesman Ernie Holzhauer.

"The effects were very mild," Holzhauer said.

In the Tampa Bay area, extending north through Hernando, winds of 20 mph to 30 mph lasted through the afternoon, according to the National Weather Service in Ruskin.

The palms and the pines did occasional shakes and shimmies, not enough of them, though, to keep open Hernando's emergency operations public information office, which closed at noon.

The tropical storm warning was officially lifted at 2 p.m.

By then, the worst of Wilma had whipped across the southern tier of the state, and the storm was over the Atlantic. Wilma, as it turned out, at least on the North Suncoast, came and went without really coming at all.

But what it did do was leave in its wake Hernando's lowest temperatures since mid May.

NOAA said it got as low as 56 degrees on Monday morning. That was the coolest it has been this month and 21 degrees lower than the local average so far this October.

Monday night's low was expected to drop into the 40s. Forecasts expected similar chilliness for tonight and Wednesday night. Highs during the day for the rest of the week are expected to range from the upper 60s to the upper 70s.

On Monday afternoon, the sky above State Road 50 was blue with some wispy white clouds, and the air was breezy, clean and cool, a stark contrast to last week's pre-Wilma heavy heat and humidity.

It was brisk.

And quite comfortable.

"We were spared very well," Emergency Management's Leto said.

"There were a couple decent gusts," Spring Hill Fire Rescue's Foshey said. "Other than that? A little breeze.

"We lucked out."

--Staff writer Asjylyn Loder contributed to this report. Michael Kruse can be reached at mkruse@sptimes.com or 352 848-1434.

[Last modified October 25, 2005, 04:13:57]