A day to dry out, assess damage
Friday's record-setting downpours leave some residents without homes or functioning cars, others searching for beloved pets.
By JAMIE THOMPSON and STEPHANIE HAYES
Published February 5, 2006
ST. PETERSBURG - After a day of record-setting rains, residents across Tampa Bay on Saturday cleaned up, dried out and prepared for a burst of cold weather that is expected to drop temperatures into the 40s this week.
Dozens of people woke early in Pinellas to retrieve cars stranded on flooded streets, rip carpet out of waterlogged homes and search for missing pets.
Six teams of inspectors from the Pinellas County Property Appraiser's Office fanned out after 6 a.m. to assess the damage from thunderstorms that pounded the area Friday - including 8.29 inches of rain at Tampa International Airport.
One of the worst-hit neighborhoods was Mariner's Cove Mobile Home Park off Ulmerton Road in Pinellas, where roughly 90 percent of the 72 homes were damaged or destroyed, said Property Appraiser Jim Smith.
"There are so many sad stories out here," Smith said, noting that many of the residents lost everything and didn't have insurance or savings.
A damage estimate for Pinellas won't be available until Monday, Smith said.
So far, the only business that appeared to have been seriously affected was the Bed Bath & Beyond on 66th Street N near Tyrone Square Mall. The store remained boarded up Saturday after a portion of its roof fell down about 11 a.m. Friday, sending customers and employees racing for safety. One person had minor injuries.
Fire officials were inspecting the entire Crosswinds Center, which also houses a Marshalls, Michaels and Sofa Express, and said some stores there could reopen early this week if the building is deemed safe.
By early afternoon Saturday, the rain had stopped.
A cold front that moved into Tampa Bay on Saturday evening was expected to drop temperatures into the high 40s and low 50s through tonight. Winds were gusting up to 20 mph at the St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport on Saturday night, making the evening feel even cooler, said Rick Davis of the National Weather Service.
A progressive pattern of cold fronts was expected to continue in coming days, bringing cooler weather throughout the week, Davis said. Temperatures were expected to span from the 60s to the 40s through Friday.
But many people Saturday were still coping with the aftermath of Friday's drenching.
Beneath gray skies, Ron Walsek, 55, sat on a plastic crate and leaned back against his 1992 Ford Tempo. Behind him, his mobile home at Mariner's Cove was soaked and unlivable. But Walsek's main concern was Knight Gato, his missing black cat.
Walsek had been working at a mutual fund company Friday when the rain started to fall. He didn't realize his neighborhood had flooded until he returned home about 3 p.m. He waded in waist-high water for a half-hour to reach his mobile home, hoping to find his skittish cat, which runs from everyone but him.
"Here, kitty cat!" Walsek shouted through the rain. Nothing.
He waded out and slept in his car, then searched again Saturday, but still couldn't find Knight Gato.
"He would have come back by now," a teary-eyed Walsek said. He feared the cat had climbed beneath the mobile home to escape the water, then got trapped and drowned. "I can replace everything else. But I had gotten quite attached to that cat," he said.
All around him, people worried about their homes. Some people blamed the nearby Cross Bayou Canal, saying they had complained about debris clogging the waterway. They believe it prevented a steady flow, sending the water flooding into their neighborhood.
"I'm really bent out of shape about this canal back here," said Smith, the property appraiser. "I'm going to check it out on Monday."
He called conditions in the mobile home park pathetic, and said he was inquiring why no one had arranged for portable toilets or shelter for residents who could not return to their homes. Many said they planned to stay with relatives or friends in the short term.
Other people spent Saturday worrying about their cars. James McConnell, 34, of Largo sat in his Mitsubishi Eclipse on Carillon Parkway, where it stalled in flooded streets Friday night.
After McConnell tried to crank the car repeatedly, a smiling tow truck driver cruised by and shouted, "Show me the money!" McConnell couldn't help but laugh. Around him, more than a dozen cars remained in the road, waiting for a tow.
After a chaotic day of delays at Tampa International Airport, planes started on schedule Saturday morning, said spokeswoman Brenda Geoghagan. By the evening, power had been restored to the 500 Tampa Electric customers who awakened without power Saturday morning, said spokesman Ross Bannister.
Progress Energy, meanwhile, restored power to about 2,500 customers between 10 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday, said company spokesman Darrick Francis. Only a handful of homes remained without power by late Saturday, he said.
Times staff writers S.I. Rosenbaum and Jonathan Abel contributed to this report. Jamie Thompson can be reached at jthompson@sptimes.com or 727 893-8455.