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Everglades City: The Storm Has Passed

Tribune photo by MICHAEL SPOONEYBARGER

Jordyn Demere, 12, and George Brummett, 8, play in the water along the main thoroughfare in Everglades City on Tuesday.

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By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 19, 2008

EVERGLADES CITY - The storm has passed, leaving behind some streets that are flooded but passable in a pickup or sport utility vehicle. A couple of kids splashed around in what yesterday was an open, grassy lot, now filled with about 2 feet of water.

Few are about this morning in this small town made up mostly of blue-collar types, fishermen and crabbers. A brave soul here and there ventured out to walk the soaked sidewalks to see what, if any, damage has been done.

Save for the brown palm fronds floating in the streets and occasional tree limb, damage was nearly nonexistent from the passing of Tropical Storm Fay, marked by the locals with a shrug.

"I slept right through most of it," said Harold Mays, 68, who runs an airboat tourist business near the City Seafood and Cafe docks. He has been in Everglades City for three years and wasn't impressed with the windy threats of Fay, though the bluster had been building for several days.

The storm lost some of its punch as it passed over Cuba but had the chance to regain momentum in the Florida Straits. But it failed to reach hurricane strength and the locals here, along the Collier County coast, which withstood Hurricane Wilma in 2005, barely noticed.

The flooded streets?

"Those streets flood at most high tides," said Mays' friend, known only as Farmer. He nodded toward the road that leads to downtown from the crab docks. "They flood all the time."

Mays agreed.

"This," he said, "was pretty mild."

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