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Fay Causes Pasco Outages; Pasco County Monitoring Tides

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By Carl  Orth | The Suncoast News

Published: August 22, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY - The tentacles of rain and gusty winds from sprawling Tropical Storm Fay finally reached into Pasco County, causing widely scattered power outages here Friday morning.

While gusts of winds have been causing most headaches so far, Pasco County officials are nervously on guard for any flooding when high tides take place late this afternoon and early Saturday morning.

Even though Fay is crossing the panhandle of Florida, the storm's massive weather system still was enough to knock out power to as many as 156 Pasco members of Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative and roughly 173 local Progress Energy Florida customers.

The noon update from Withlacoochee listed 156 Pasco members without power, according to a press release from David Lambert, manager of member relations for the electric cooperative. The 3:09 p.m. update showed 43 Pasco members still remained without electricity.

In the co-op's five-county region, as many as 702 out of some 200,000 members had been left in the dark as of the 9 a.m. Friday advisory.

Crews will work round the clock to restore power, Lambert emphasized.

At Progress Energy Florida, most outages were clustered along the U.S. 19 corridor about 8 a.m. Most repairs had completed by 1 p.m. today.

The biggest outage struck 103 customers in the Holiday area near U.S. 19 and Sunray Drive about 8 a.m. Friday. Power had been restored by about 9:30 a.m. Two individuals in the Holiday and Seven Springs area were affected as well.

A single Progress Energy customer was impacted in the New Port Richey area near U.S. 19 north of Main Street about 7:50 a.m.

Four Hudson-area customers were hit shortly after 8:25 a.m. near U.S. 19 north of Ranch Road and south of S.R. 52.

In the meantime, emergency officials at the county are watching any storm surge from Fay on top of high tides.

"We're going to be watching those very closely," said James Martin, Pasco's emergency management director.

A high tide is coming up within several hours after 5 p.m. today, Martin noted. Then another high tide should take place about 4:30 a.m. Saturday.

The latest county advisory at 12:45 p.m. today warns people the storm still remains a threat. Pasco was largely unscathed Tuesday during Fay's first pass through the state south of here.

"Residents will experience periods of stormy conditions, high winds and heavy rain as the outer bands of the storm impact this region," the advisory reads.

Fay is moving toward the west at a snail's pace of about 5 mph, weather reports say. The storm could linger in Florida for the next 24 to 36 hours.

Maximum sustained winds are near 45 mph with higher gusts, according to the Pasco advisory.
"Little change in strength is forecast during the next 24 hours. Sunday should begin a return to normal summer conditions," the county bulletin stated.

Carl Orth can be reached at 727-815-1068 or corth@suncoastnews.com.

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