Fay is Downgraded, Exits After Long, Destructive Run

The Miami Herald

Aug. 25--TALLAHASSEE -- Tropical Storm Fay exited Florida Sunday after a weeklong rampage that killed 11 people and left in its wake a trail of destruction that forced a presidential disaster declaration and another round of evacuations from flooded areas.

President Bush declared Brevard, Monroe, Okeechobee and St. Lucie counties disaster areas Sunday, opening the door for emergency funds to stream into the regions and help offset the cost of the storm to state and local coffers.

But even though Fay was downgraded to a tropical depression on Saturday, rivers continued to rise to record levels throughout Florida and homeowners from Orlando to Tallahassee were evacuated from flooded communities.

Officials used boats to ferry about 70 people from homes in DeBary, 25 miles north of Orlando, where some streets were under four feet of water. And in Tallahassee, homeowners in the Timber Lake subdivision were told it may be two weeks before the water subsides and they can return to their homes.

"The water is very deep. It's already at everybody's door," said Debra Galloway who lives in the Timber Lake subdivision. She was still at home Sunday evening without power but said if the rain continued she would join neighbors who had already left by boat.

Gov. Charlie Crist and an entourage of state officials toured the flooded areas along the St. Marks River, which rose from 6.9 feet on Friday to 12.9 feet on Sunday as water streamed in from basins farther north.

Those who live along the St. Marks River expected flooding but not so much water so quickly.

"The river came in unbelievably fast," said Sigrid Fain, an eight-year resident. "Every time we got something to dry land, the river would rise and things would start to float away again. People who have lived here for 30, 40 years said they've never seen it like that."

Fain was evacuated on Saturday by the National Guard who had to exchange Humvees for boats to rescue people as the river rose.

As the heavy rains continued to dump water into the tributaries that feed Florida's rivers, Crist warned that it is "exacerbating the flooding we've all seen."

Rivers and streams throughout the Panhandle are at risk for moderate flooding, said state meteorologist Ben Nelson.

The 310-mile St. Johns River, which runs north from Central Florida to the far northeast corner of the state, is the most swollen it has been since the 2004 hurricane season, said Todd Hamill, a forecaster at the Southeast River Forecast Center in Georgia.

"The water had nowhere to go, it went into the rivers and now it's going to take a lot of time for that water to run through the system," he said.

Crist stopped at the Riverside Cafe on the banks of the St. Marks River, where a pole indicates the water level of past storms. While Hurricane Dennis brought four feet of water in 2005, owner Stan West said Fay brought only about six inches.

"God was good to us," West said as he served fried and raw oysters to Crist and other state officials.

As federal agencies send relief funds to Florida and insurance companies pay their claims and homeowners spend it for repairs and improvements, the cash could perk up the economy, economists say.

'The greatest stimulus comes from 'new money' -- what economists call a helicopter drop," said Amy Baker, the Legislature's chief economist.

But she cautioned that people wind up spending money on nontaxable labor, as opposed to taxable goods they would have bought anyway, so storms very often aren't a plus when it comes to the state budget, which is hemorrhaging money as the economy sinks.

The state reaped nearly $1.2 billion in extra revenues but spent about $1.4 billion from the effects of 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons, according to state estimates The Miami Herald obtained. The extra spending helped boost employment and flush more money into the entire state, but the $242 million hole is tough to ignore.

"The bottom line is that the state ends up spending more than we bring in," Baker said. '1/8Storms3/8 aren't the 'economic boom' that people think they are."

No port was safe from Fay, which made landfall four times and left the state's 14 port towns and dozens of inland counties swamped like no other storm before it.

Beaches from Key West to Jacksonville have been shaved and eroded. And as Fay moved north into Georgia and Alabama it claimed another life as the storm dumped 12 inches of rain on the area.

Authorities say 12-year-old Mac Crutchfield fell into an overflowing lake near his home in Cairo on Saturday afternoon and was pulled into a drain pipe for the lake dam. Steve Dickerson, 47, tried to rescue him but he was sucked into the drain pipe as well.

The boy was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead. Dickerson is in stable condition.

Fay has killed 11 people in accidental deaths in Florida, one short of the number of people killed by Hurricane Dennis in 2005. It was the first storm in recorded history to make four landfalls in the state.

Estimated damage to agriculture is expected to be at least $20 million in South and Southwest Florida and the state is requesting $20 million in job assistance help.

There are a few positives to Fay. Department of Environmental Protection chief Mike Sole said Lake Okeechobee -- the reservoir for the Everglades and South Florida -- is about 12 1/2 feet high, well above drought stage and well below flood stage.

Also, the watershed for the Apalachicola River has been swamped and temporarily relieved of drought conditions.

Before he left to tour the flooding in Wakulla County, the governor made a plea for help.

"Fay has caused millions of dollars of damage and our fellow Floridians need help," he said.

He urged people to call or log onto the disaster fund line, which is collecting money for Fay victims: 800-825-3786 or www.FlaDisasterFund.org.

Florida's director of emergency management, Craig Fugate, added this postscript: "Today is the anniversary of the landfall of Hurricane Andrew in 1992," he said. "We still have a little more hurricane season to go."

By Mary Ellen Klas and Marc Caputo. Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.

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