Tampa Bay Times du lieu suivant : St. Petersburg, Florida • 3

3a TIMES FRIDAY, JUNE 26, 1992 Storm from 1A -1 9 1 outages were due to high winds and lightning. "We'll be working through the night," he said. "There's a lot of line damage and a lot of trees down." Mahoney said crews were expecting even more outages through the early hours of the morning. The areas affected include Lakewood, Davis Islands, Tampa Palms, Dade City, Temple Terrace, the area around the University of South Florida and Busch Gardens. In St.

Petersburg, between 5,000 and 5,500 Florida Power Corp. customers lost electrical service sometime during the evening, company spokesman Rick Janka said. The power company called in extra workers and nearly 60 repair trucks were on the streets Thursday night, Janka said. Because of the number of downed wires, some customers were not expected to regain power until early today. Heavy storm damage was not expected in the Tampa Bay area, but the region was covered by the Hurricane Center's coastal flood watch.

This morning's high tide could combine with onshore winds to lift tidal levels higher than normal. "If we have problems here, they probably would come in the forenoon hours," said Chuck Eg-gleton, forecaster at the National Weather Service office in Ruskin. High tide for The Pier in St. Petersburg, for example, is at 10:48 a.m. On Thursday Manatee and Sarasota counties to the south of Tampa Bay bore the brunt of the heavy weather.

Two-day rainfall totals surpassed 16 inches in some areas, and a small tornado bounced through a Nokomis mobile home park. In Sarasota County, police and emergency management officials said the heavy rains caused the Myakka River to rise about an inch per hour, and flooding in some areas forced the closure of a number of roads. By 6 p.m., residents along the low-lying stretch of Frog Creek in -v- around Tampa Bay. In Manatee County, officials declared a state of emergency Thursday night and prepared to evacuate residents downstream of Lake Manatee Reservoir. Between 400 and 3,000 people were being moved, said Rita Dra-lus, spokeswoman for the county's emergency services.

They were being taken to Braden River Middle School, she said. The reservoir, normally at 35 feet, had risen to higher than 39 feet late Thursday, said Dralus. To prevent flooding, officials opened the dam's gates. Hurricane forecaster Lixion Avila said most of the depression's energy was packed into its eastern half, the portion that sent wave after wave of squalls across Florida's Gulf Coast on Thursday. If the Hurricane Center is right, the system should not strengthen into a tropical storm.

A depression would be upgraded to a storm if its maximum sustained winds exceeded 39 mph. The depression was drifting to the north-northeast at 9 mph, and forecasters expected it to come ashore just south of Tallahassee around 8 tonight. For the Tampa Bay region, the depression brought as much rain as some of the larger storms of the past few years, said Humble, the Ruskin forecaster. Among those, a four-day rain in September 1988 dropped 8 inches of rain at Tampa's airport. In March 1987, a five-day rain left 7Vi inches.

The Skyway closed for 35 minutes after a construction crane at the north end of the north causeway toppled. Traffic was blocked in both directions until the crane was cleared away about 8:20 p.m. The storm also knocked down a vacant, two-story warehouse in St. Petersburg. No injuries were reported.

About 40,000 Tampa Electric Co. customers lost power at various times Thursday, but only 5,000 were still without service as of 10:30 p.m., said TECO spokesman Mike Mahoney. Most of the TimM photo FRED VICTORIN Wind-driven waves pound the sea wall Thursday at Vinoy and Spa Beach on Tampa Bay in St. Petersburg. Jan Smith examines her i Mat, imawimi 11 a fallina tree across from City across from i i At fJa HalllnSt.

f' Petersbura. I 4Wfl by when the tree wtgJ 1 mit mm the Terra Ceia area of Manatee County watched as the creek began overflowing its banks. Sandbags were already in place around the office at the Frog Creek Campground as groups of children frolicked in the rising water. Even if the rain stops this morning, Manatee and Sarasota residents won't see the worst of the flooding until at least Saturday, possibly Sunday. The region's flat terrain, wetlands and meandering streams work together to trap the water for a day or two before it finally surges downstream.

A tornado touched down at a mobile home park in Nokomis, ripping the roofs off five homes and causing leaks in 12 others, said Sarasota County Sheriff's Department Lt. William Stookey. The twister did not cause any injuries. Staff writers Bill Duryea, Carol A. Marbin and Marty Roten contributed to this report 4 a Hnii Ten suiierea i minor head injuries and was 1 nj -3; taken to a IT mjm hospital.

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