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Hurricane Wilma

Easy, breezy

The Tampa Bay area fared much better than neighbors in South Florida.

By Times Staff
Published October 25, 2005

	[Times photo: Skip O'Rourke]
	Over Tampa Bay near Nature Park on Apollo Beach, a cold front Monday morning reveals blue skies as it pushes storm clouds from Hurricane Wilma off to the east. In the foreground is the stub of a tree that shows the scars from past storms that have battered the area. More photos Complete Wilma coverage

Cold weather

The chilly temperatures were carried to Tampa Bay by the same cold front that steered Wilma into and out of Florida so quickly. The cold front carries "heavy, cold and dry air that ... moves from the upper levels of the atmosphere and actually sinks down," said meteorologist Anthony Reynes of the National Weather Service.

The cooler weather in the Tampa Bay area, with lows in the 40s and 50s and highs in the 70s, should continue until about Thursday. Then temperatures are expected to rise again.

Pinellas, Pasco, Hillsborough, Hernando and Citrus counties reopened schools today.

Hillsborough students will not have to make up the day because the district has built four extra days into its calendar for such situations.

Pinellas school superintendent Clayton Wilcox will choose later this week between two make-up dates, Nov. 11 or Dec. 16. Both are Fridays and were scheduled as early dismissal days.

Other districts have not announced make up days yet.

In a season of record hurricane numbers, this was the only tropical storm warning for the Tampa Bay area, so far. Dire warnings of storm surge and flooding proved unfounded since the winds blew water offshore. Winds were at their fiercest between dawn and 10 a.m.

According to the weather service, 1.44 inches of rain fell at Tampa International Airport, 1.43 inches at St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport, and a gust of about 44 mph was recorded at 3 p.m. Albert Whitted Airport saw 1.97 inches of rain and winds of up to 45 mph between 7 and 8 a.m. Citrus County experienced sustained winds of 25 mph, with gusts of 39 mph and about 0.58 inches of rain.

Wilma left thousands of bay area households temporarily without electricity, although repair crews restored service quickly to many of them. At its peak, Progress Energy Florida of St. Petersburg reported about 52,000 customers without power in its 35-county service territory. By late Monday afternoon, that figure had dropped to 18,414, including 2,813 customers in Pinellas County and 2,145 customers in Pasco County.

Progress Energy said it expected to restore 80 percent of them by midnight, and the rest by midnight Tuesday. Tampa Electric said about 2,500 customers were without power Monday afternoon, down from a peak of about 25,000. The Tampa utility expected to restore electricity to almost all its customers by midnight Monday.

Airlines at Tampa International Airport canceled or delayed flights early. About 150 of the airport's usual 550 daily operations were canceled or took long delays, said airport spokeswoman Brenda Geoghagan. More than a third of the cancellations were from Delta Air Lines, TIA's largest carrier.

Hurricane Wilma spared Pinellas beaches any major erosion. Instead, it pulled water away and made for an unusually low tide.

"We're in real good shape," said Madeira Beach City Manager Jill Silverboard.

St. Pete Beach, Treasure Island and Indian Rocks Beach also were spared.

Shore Acres, the low-lying St. Petersburg neighborhood that typically floods during a heavy storm, stayed dry.

After last year's hurricanes, Pat Callaghan, 49, became accustomed to seeing people canoe past his home through flooded streets. On Monday, he stepped outside and was pleased to see Wilma's bluster was worse than her bite.

"It was a little unnerving when we heard the wind blowing so hard," Callaghan said. "But it doesn't look like it did much of anything."

Wilma caused an estimated $4-billion to $10-billion in insured losses in Florida, which would make it by far the state's most costly storm of 2005.

State officials were scheduled Tuesday to conduct an aerial inspection of Wilma's path to assist insurance adjusters in identifying areas that sustained the worst damage, according to Sam Miller, executive vice president of the insurance council.

David Mica, executive director of the Florida Petroleum Council, said he wasn't aware of any major gasoline shortages caused by Wilma. Instead, power outages were the biggest challenge facing gas stations in storm-affected areas, he said. Meanwhile, gas prices in the Tampa Bay area continued to decline from their peak immediately after Hurricane Katrina. The average price of regular unleaded on Monday was $2.71 a gallon, down a penny from the day before.

One official report of damage came from Largo, where a tree fell across the road at Kent Place off Belcher Road, taking down some power lines. Firefighters waited for Progress Energy to respond and then cleared the hazard.

Pasco, Hernando and Citrus counties also were spared, for the most part, though Mike Smith of Hudson Beach in Pasco County woke up Monday with a jolt by his neighbor's metal porch roof hurtling into an electric pole and palm tree in Smith's front yard. The force snapped the pole and Smith's power.

Elsewhere, the storm was a minor nuisance.

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

At Avery Acres Mobile Park in St. Petersburg, Josh Robinson, 26, bragged about sleeping through Wilma.

"I've been here so long," he said, "it's just another news flash. Little bit of wind, little bit of rain."

His neighbor, Clifford Sumner, also reported no damage to his home or his mood.

"If it goes, it goes," Sumner, 68, said of the house. "I'd just pack a van and move up north. I'm retired. What do I care?"

--Times staff writers Curtis Krueger, Vanessa de la Torre, Thomas C. Tobin, Louis Hau, Jeffrey S. Solochek, Justin George, Paul Swider, Carrie Johnson, Colleen Jenkins, Michael Kruse, Will Van Sant, Jorge Sanchez and Jean Heller contributed to this report.

[Last modified October 25, 2005, 08:09:46]