On Monday, another storm clobbered somewhere else.
For the umpteenth consecutive hurricane, the Tampa Bay region was spared the worst of a major system — in this case, Category 1 Hurricane Debby, which barreled into Steinhatchee in Florida’s Big Bend. As the storm winds receded and the rains ebbed here Monday evening, it appeared that local communities would have the relative privilege of a collective exhale.
But Debby remains a danger. Its wind had largely spared Tampa Bay. Would its water?
Experts and officials said that question is still to be answered.
“There will be an ongoing threat over the ensuing days,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a news conference in Tallahassee on Monday morning about the flooding to come.
Some parts of the region saw as much as a foot of rain from Debby. The Little Manatee and Alafia rivers in Hillsborough were expected to reach the “major” flood stage Tuesday and remain elevated throughout the week, forecasters with the National Weather Service warned. The waters of the Withlacoochee in Pasco were expected to rise as well, flooding by Thursday.
Mike Clay, the chief meteorologist at Bay News 9, said he expected scattered neighborhoods to flood, and for dangerous conditions to last through the week.
The Hillsborough River’s record high level is 35 inches. By week’s end, it could reach just shy of that mark, forecasters from the National Weather Service’s Tampa Bay office wrote in a Monday afternoon briefing.
In Madeira Beach, murky water lingered on some low-lying streets along the Intracoastal Waterway early Monday after Debby passed overnight. By midmorning, some normalcy had returned to the area, which saw many of its homes spared the flooding brought by past storms. Garbage trucks collected trash bins left at the curb. People walked their dogs.
But residents were not celebrating. Instead, they kept a wary eye on the forecast. Another high tide was expected in the early afternoon.
In Riverview, a few dozen miles away, the threat was not the bay, but the Alafia.
In the afternoon, the river reached almost 5 feet above stage level, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data, submerging some streets on the south side of the river. A handful of roads that were passable in the morning were under half a foot of water by 3 p.m.
Farther east, near Lithia, forecasters project the river rising 19 feet above stage level by Tuesday evening.
For some around the Tampa Bay area, there will be no anxiety over the behavior of rivers and bays. The danger posed by Debby was already apparent. A neighborhood near Tyrone Park in St. Petersburg saw a small lake overflow onto property lines, turning swimming pools an ominous black. The parking lot of a Largo apartment complex flooded, totaling some cars and seeping into some residences.
Kaitlyn Drake, 28, was one of the unlucky few who trudged to the parking lot of Central Park at East Bay Apartments — miles from the bay — to survey the damage. She found the back seat of her 2001 Pontiac Sunfire soaked through.
“I’m from Arizona,” Drake said. “I didn’t know what to expect.”
Even those left relatively unscathed by Debby had to take note of news of the storm’s power. An 18-wheeler driving through the squalls careened into Tampa Bypass Canal early Monday morning, killing the driver. Authorities shut down major thoroughfares like the Sunshine Skyway bridge and the Howard Frankland as wind and debris made driving unsafe. Dozens of flights from airports were canceled or delayed. The Tampa Riverwalk flooded. On Monday morning, some 40,000 Duke Energy and Tampa Electric customers were without power. That figure had been more than halved by Monday evening.
Four people have died from the storm so far, DeSantis said. The storm’s final toll has yet to register.
No major hurricane has hit the Tampa Bay region since October 1921. There have been numerous close calls over the years: Charley, Irma, Ian, Idalia. Emergency planners and meteorologists often say with a run of luck this good, they fear the Tampa Bay region could grow complacent.
But Clay said Debby will remind Tampa Bay that complacency is dangerous between the months of June and November.
“It got people’s attention,” Clay said. “It’s a good reminder that A.) This is hurricane season, and B.) This was just a tropical storm.”
Times reporters Colleen Wright, Langston Taylor, Christopher O’Donnell, Jack Prator, Olivia George, Shauna Muckle, Emily L. Mahoney and Zachary T. Sampson contributed to this report.