Storm's swath touches Tampa Bay area
This is for Phoenix---the tornadoes were 3 minutes or 1.22 miles from my son's home.
That is too close for comfort.
BBB
Storm's swath touches bay area
WILL VAN SANT and S.I. ROSENBAUM
Published July 10, 2005
St. Petersberg Times, Florida
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.
Generally not-so-great day, one really fun part. Went to the playground, sozlet was playing with a girl about her age while her parents had some ice cream. Chatted with the mom a little bit, then she and the dad started shooting baskets. Something in my eye made her ask me if I wanted to, too, and I said "sure!!" I haven't played a real pick-up game in over 10 years, but I used to all the time and at that moment really, really wanted a basketball in my hands.
So we decide to play Horse. The mom's whatever but the dad's a real basketball player, sinks one from the top of the key. She tries, a good four feet short. I step up -- skirt, sandals, hair down -- get a feel for the ball, loft it, and *swish*. Guy whips around and gives me a look.
I still lost, but gave the guy a real run for his money, and got a whole lot of "she did that??"/ "she did that??" looks from him. He was laughing by the time I went 'round the world (swishes from several stations around the basket in a row.)
It felt GOOD. I forgot how much I loved basketball. Haven't played in absolutely forever and not in particularly great shape, don't know how my muscles remembered... but they did. It was awesome.
Muscles do remember, don't they?
I had both kids today, the elder, six year old Silvi, is out of camp this week. She has lost both bottom front teeth and both of the top front teeth have been wiggly - one more than the other. We have tried to persuade her to let us pull the tooth, but she's avoided that even though the first two to fall out were easy. We told her to remember just hopw easy they came out each time they did. She forgot, or it didn't matter.
The tooth has been barely hanging in for weeks now, she plays with it and loves to freak me out with the weird angles she can make it tilt at.
Anyway, today she came into my kitchen where I was trying to get the younger to sit still for lunch (oy!). She said, "Call my moma, I'm going to pull out my tooth myself." I told her to pull it first, then we'd call her mama. She did. Boom. It didn't hurt at all.
finding out I didnt have cancer is what made me smile the biggest and mostest in the past couple of days! w00t!
HOORAY for SEED!!!
I hate those scares.
yea and the fact that i had to wait for what seemed foreever to find was even worse!
This forum makes me smile. "Human Interest Stories Finally, men talk about their penises."
i thought that was what they always talked about? oh we just think with them all the time.. .nevermind
That's great, Seed! Sorry about the fact that you had a scare at all, though.
its ok.. it must makes me stronger right?
My mom, a four-time cancer survivor, found out today that there isn't a fifth time. Just scar(e) tissue.
That's right.
How long did you have to wait? I know it always seems like forever.
i went to the doctor last tuesday and just found out today that there wasnt anything to worry about
A week, then? That's about normal. I really hate it when they promise to give you lab results "at the end of the week," then don't have them on Friday and make you wait until Monday or Tuesday. The stress is enough to make you sick!
Glad to hear it was good news! Go out and celebrate, okay?!
make you sick? yea the stress killed me... every meal i ate felt like it was coming back up it was horrible... i didnt tell my mom cus id idnt want her to worry.. im glad i didnt... cus t hen she would have worried over nothing. i got strept throat two weeks ago and told her... i was trying to sleep but she would call every 2 hours and see how i was doing... sweet but i mean come on mom! im almost 23, lol... i love her though
Hey Seed thats good thats good <nods>
Good news for both seed and cjhsa.
That's a good thing.
Got a cute new nightgown and matching robe, on sale at Macy's, for $15.00!!
All the women out there know what I'm talking about here -- getting something on sale like that is like...fresh kill!
chjsa and seed, very good news indeed.
A big smile at seeing a little golden finch land on a cosmos, watching the cosmos slowly bend under the miniscule weight of the finch and seeing the finch hold on as the stem bent almost to the ground. He was intent on sipping a dew drop of water.
