Prepare for a wet few days

By Angie Thompson/senior reporter

TIFTON August 20, 2008 07:50 pm

— The possibility of heavy rains from Tropical Storm Fay seems to be a higher threat to this area than high winds and local emergency responders are preparing for a wet weekend. They’re asking the public to do the same.
Those who are charged with responding in cases of emergency gathered at City Hall Wednesday afternoon to hear the latest predictions on Tropical Storm Fay from the National Weather Service in Tallahassee. Another conference call is scheduled for 2 p.m. Thursday at city hall.
Two scenarios existed Wednesday afternoon for how Fay could affect this area between Thursday and Monday. If the storm stays mostly over water in the gulf, this area is predicted to receive between 2 and 4 inches of rain. If she moves over Tallahassee and travels more inland, this area could receive between 4 and 6 inches of rain. It’s possible that Tifton and Tift County could be under a flash flood watch as early as Thursday afternoon. Isolated tornadoes could also develop Friday night.
Scott Bowers, director of Tifton-Tift County E-911 and Emergency Management Agency, said that people should stay home during heavy rainfall when possible.
“It only takes 6 inches of rain to knock someone off of their feet and a foot of water to float a car,” Bowers said.
Bowers also encouraged people to remove chairs, umbrellas and other objects from their lawns and patios as they could become projects in the wind and also clog drainage ditches that need to stay clear to keep water flowing. He urged everyone to have an evacuation plan in place, but especially those who operate nursing homes and assisted living homes.
“They really need to have supplies, such as extra oxygen and generators, in place,” Bowers said.
Bowers said it would also be a good idea to check on people, especially the elderly who live alone, and relocate to another area when necessary.
Cal Carpenter, the city’s public works director, said that he and his crew had been surveying ditches and drains in areas where flooding has occurred in the past.
“We are trying to make sure that major culverts are clear of debris and cleaning storm drains and grates so that when water gets here, it will have some where to go,” Carpenter said.
Some of those potential flood areas in the city include an area of ditch on 10th Street west of Fulwood Park; Virginia Avenue in the area of the old Wal-Mart site; on Kent Road in the area of the high school; 28th Street; and on Alabama Drive.
People are urged to stay updated on weather developments in the next few days and to prepare by having fresh batteries in NOAA weather radios and flashlights; have first aid kits stocked and medications in the supply needed for several days; have a good supply of non-perishable food and water stored; and to have their vehicle’s fuel tank filled in case an evacuation is ordered.
Parents, school bus drivers and students who drive to school are urged to use extreme caution Thursday and Friday.
Representatives from the school system, power companies, the health department, DFACS and the Red Cross, as well as representatives of Omega and Ty Ty were on hand at Tifton City Hall for the weather update Wednesday afternoon.
• AP story starts here.
Hundreds of central Florida homes flooded Wednesday as Tropical Storm Fay drenched the state for a third consecutive day, and forecasters warned the waters could worsen because the storm had stubbornly stalled.
The storm could dump 30 inches of rain in some areas of Florida and the National Hurricane Center said up to 22 inches had already fallen near Melbourne, just south of Cape Canaveral on the state’s central Atlantic coast.
“In some areas, it’s waist-deep,” said Erick Gill, a spokesman for St. Lucie County, which is south of Melbourne. “We’ve had reports of people having 3 to 5 feet of water in their home.”
Gill said hundreds of homes had been flooded, though a count was incomplete. Homes also were flooded in Brevard County, said Bob Lay, the county’s emergency operations director. Floodwaters also had caused sewage to back up, affecting another 40,000 to 50,000 people in three towns.
The Florida National Guard mobilized about a dozen guardsmen and some high-water vehicles to assist with damage assessment and help evacuate people trapped in homes, said Jon Myatt, spokesman for the Florida Department of Military Affairs.
Forecasters had originally expected Fay to energize over the ocean and possibly become a hurricane. But the storm’s center remained just inland early Wednesday and forecasters said it might not go over the water until the afternoon.
Yvonne Martinez, spokeswoman for the city of Palm Bay, said 2 to 3 feet of water rendered many roadways impassable. “From what I’ve seen, some people won’t be able to get out of their houses until the water recedes,” she said.
The storm remained near Cape Canaveral at 2 p.m. EDT Wednesday, not having moved much in several hours. Its maximum sustained winds were back up to about 50 mph and it was expected to resume slowly moving north later Wednesday.
Steve Letro, chief meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Jacksonville, said Wednesday parts of northern Florida could get 10 to 15 inches of rain, while southern Georgia could receive 3 to 6 inches.
Bands from Fay, meanwhile, brought intermittent rains to Georgia’s 100-mile coastline Wednesday from St. Marys at the Florida state line to Savannah.
Robyn Butler, 45, and her husband fled their 32-foot camper in Vero Beach, Fla., after it flooded. They got a hotel room inland in Sebastian, but planned to leave it Wednesday and return home because storm water was also pooling there. The toilets were backing up, Butler said, and wouldn’t flush.
“(My husband is) from Kansas and he gets all bug-eyed when he hears tornadoes,” Butler said. “So we decided to evacuate.”
A hurricane watch was discontinued for parts of north Florida and Georgia. A tropical storm warning was extended, covering an area from Fort Pierce, Fla., to Altamaha Sound in Georgia. A warning means such conditions are expected within 24 hours, while a watch means such conditions are possible within 36 hours.
The storm hit the Florida Keys on Monday, veered over the Gulf and then traversed east across the state Tuesday on a path that would have taken it over the Atlantic before it curved toward the Florida-Georgia border. It was welcome in rain-starved croplands.
“It’s very seldom we’re hoping for a hurricane, but we are,” said Randy Branch, a farmer in southeast Georgia where lingering drought has left about a third of his cotton and peanut crops bare this summer. “We need some rain pretty bad.”
In Duval County, which surrounover the weekend in the Atlantic and was blamed for 20 deaths in the Caribbean before hitting Florida’s southwest coast, where it fell short of predictions it could be a Category 1 hurricane when it came ashore.
The storm flooded streets in Naples, downed trees and cut power to some 95,000 homes and businesses in South Florida on Monday. Tornadoes spawned by the storm damaged 51 homes in Brevard County, southeast of Orlando, including nine homes that were totaled.
Two injuries were reported in the Brevard County tornado, and a kitesurfer who was caught in a gust of wind Monday was critically injured when he slammed into a building in front of the beach near Fort Lauderdale. Kevin Kearney, 28, was still in critical condition Tuesday, Broward General Medical Center officials and his family said.

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