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Hernando Today

Residents Not Fretting Much Over Fay

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By TONY MARRERO

Hernando Today

Published: August 19, 2008

HERNANDO BEACH - Gulfstar Marina was quieter than Ed Szurovy expected it would be Monday morning.
Only a few customers worried about the approaching Tropical Storm Fay had called or showed up to have their boats pulled out of the water and stored on dry land at the marina on Shoal Line Boulevard, said Szurovy, president of the operation.
"I was anticipating the phone ringing off the hook," he said. "It's one of those things where they wait until the very last moment."
In fact, there were few signs that a storm was on the way Monday in this Gulf-front community. No plywood covered windows. Few storm shutters had been battened down.
"I'm not too worried about it," said John Currie, who lives with his wife Maryann and two grandchildren in a large, contemporary Mediterranean-style home on Gulfwinds Circle.
Currie said his storm preparations so far had amounted to bringing in the patio furniture and other odds and ends from outside the home, which sits right on the Gulf.
A few doors down, Kelley Felts said the same, though like Currie she said she'll be quick to heed evacuation orders.
"We'll pack it up and go," Felts said.
"It's sort of a standby situation," said Ed Arnold, a handyman working on and caring for a home on Gulfview Drive for owners who live in Temple Terrace. "We're just keeping an eye on the Weather Channel."
However, Arnold said if the storm strengthened and the forecast tracked changes enough to warrant a run to the home improvement store for plywood to cover the windows and sliding glass doors, "I'll probably be one of the first in line."
As of Monday afternoon, customers at the Lowes on U.S 19 in Spring Hill were showing a "pretty reasonable, measured response" to Fay's threat, said Burton Jay, the store's operations manager.
Sales on the basics – water, lanterns, batteries and gas cans – started to increase Saturday, Jay said. The store has also sold a few more generators, chain saws and hurricane shutters.
A few residents had grabbed sandbags by Monday afternoon from the Brooksville public works department on South Brooksville Avenue.
Back at Gulfstar Marina in Hernando Beach, Bob Clark cleaned up paint cans and other supplies from around his 37-foot Southern Cross sailboat, which sat on jack stands in the yard.
Clark, of Aripeka, recently moved from Colorado and had planned to have the boat in the water by now but is behind schedule on the improvements.
"Now I'm glad I didn't get it done as soon as I'd hoped," Clark said. He figured his still unnamed "retirement toy" is safer where it is.
"Maybe we'll call it 'Stormy,'" he said.
Szurovy, the marina's president, said he and his staffers would work around the clock to get boats out of the water if the calls start flooding in.
Bill Barton of Spring Hill will keep his 38-foot Heritage West Indies sailboat in the water, though he'll add some extra lines and bumpers.
Barton also noted another important piece of preparation: "Make sure your insurance premium is paid."

Water bodies can use the rain

Fay's rains could go a long way toward erasing the region's rainfall deficit, said Robyn Felix, spokeswoman for the Southwest Florida Water Management District.
The district's 16-county area is 14 inches below normal for the last 24 month period, so there is plenty of room in rivers and lakes to handle a storm event that could bring 8 inches of precipitation or more, Felix said.
Officials had hoped for an above-average rainy season, and Fay might contribute to that. Normal August rainfall for Hernando County is 8.4 inches. So far, the county has received just less than 3.5 inches.
"The water resources still have a long way to recover for the last two and a half years of drought, so the rainfall would definitely help," she said.

Reporter Tony Marrero can be reached at 352-544-5286 or lmarrero@hernandotoday.com.

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