ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Tropical Storm Eta dumped torrents of blustery rain on Florida’s west coast as it moved over Florida after making landfall north of the heavily populated Tampa Bay area Thursday morning.
The storm slogged ashore near Cedar Key, Florida, with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph. Eta moved across North Central Florida as it loses strength, heading into the Atlantic. Eta briefly gained hurricane strength Wednesday morning, but forecasters said it later weakened to tropical storm status.
In Bradenton Beach, Mark Mixon stepped into his flooded garage as he was laying sandbags around his home on Wednesday evening and was electrocuted, said Jacob Saur, director of public safety for Manatee County. There were appliances plugged into the garage and when Mixon stepped into the water, he was killed, Saur said.
Rescue crews had to wait for Florida Power and Light, which was responding to power outages from the storm, to deenergize the grid for the neighborhood where Mixon lived before they could assist, Saur said.
There were no other immediate reports of any injuries or serious damage in the Tampa Bay area as the storm skirted past that region Wednesday afternoon. Several tornado warnings were issued, but there were no reports of one touching down.
Meanwhile, a tropical wave located over the central Caribbean Sea continues to produce a large area of showers and thunderstorms. Satellite imagery indicates that the disturbance is gradually becoming better organized, and a tropical depression will likely form within the next couple of days as it moves slowly westward over the central and western Caribbean Sea. Regardless of development, this system is expected to bring heavy rainfall along with possible flash flooding to portions of Hispaniola over the next day or so.
* Formation chance through 48 hours...high...80 percent.
* Formation chance through 5 days...high...90 percent.
On Thursday morning, much of the Tampa Bay area was under a storm surge warning. The storm forced officials to close some lanes on two of the three bridges that cross Tampa Bay, connecting the St. Petersburg area to Tampa, the Tampa Bay Times reported. The Sunshine Skyway Bridge, which links Pinellas and Manatee counties, also remained closed early Thursday.
Firefighters in Tampa rescued around a dozen people who got stuck in flooding on Bayshore Boulevard. On Thursday morning, there were still a few abandoned vehicles on the flooded roadway, WFTS in Tampa reported.
Late Wednesday residents of Twin Cities Mobile Home Park in St. Petersburg were forced to evacuate because of flooding, the television station reported.
The Tampa Bay region is home to more than 3.5 million people across five coastal counties. No mandatory evacuations were ordered, but authorities opened shelters for anyone needing them. Local media reported only a handful of people showed up.
Tampa International Airport suspended operations Wednesday afternoon, but was up and running early Thursday after the storm passed. Airport officials urged travelers to check flight statuses with their airlines.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an expanded emergency declaration to include 13 counties along or near the Gulf coast, adding them to South Florida counties. DeSantis also asked for an early emergency order from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to free resources needed to tackle the storm. President Donald Trump granted the request Wednesday evening.
The hurricane center said “life-threatening storm surge” was possible early Thursday, and forecasters advised residents to heed warnings from local officials. Surge warnings were cancelled Thursday mid-morning.
The storm first hit Nicaragua as a Category 4 hurricane and killed at least 120 people in Central America and Mexico, with scores more missing. It then moved into the Gulf of Mexico early Monday near where the Everglades meet the sea.
Eta hit land late Sunday as it blew over Lower Matecumbe Key, in the middle of the chain of small islands that form the Florida Keys, but the heavily populated areas of Miami-Dade and Broward Counties bore the brunt of the fury with heavy rainfall.
It was the 28th named storm of a busy Atlantic hurricane season, tying the 2005 record for named storms. And late Monday, it was followed by the 29th storm, Theta, located far out in the Atlantic Ocean hundreds of miles from the Azores.