By Matt Wiley
As if the Tampa Bay area wasn’t already wet enough, the rain continues to come down, making this one of the soggiest summers in recent memory. However, our area did catch a break when Tropical Storm Erika fell apart on its projected path that many meteorologists predicted would be on a crash course with New Tampa.
According to the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Tropical Storm Erika’s organization was pulled apart by wind shear and the mountains of Hispaniola, the highest mountain range in the Caribbean, with Pico Duarte in the Dominican Republic topping 10,000 ft.
Before crossing the islands, Erika’s path varied between several projections, each of which seemed to agree that at least some part of Florida was in the storm’s sights. Gov. Rick Scott even announced an official State of Emergency for Florida. But, the storm officially was downgraded to a low-pressure system on August 29.
On August 31, despite a muggy, sunny morning, the storm’s remnants began to move through Florida and Flood Watches were put into effect. The Hillsborough County Emergency Operations Center, which was deactivated after the storm was downgraded from a tropical storm, was reactivated for flooding concerns.
As the weather approached New Tampa, National Weather Service (NWS) statistics indicate that the Tampa Bay region already had soaked up 16.47 inches of rain during the month of August, almost 9 inches more than normal, with five separate days of more than an inch of rainfall. But, NWS reports that the remnants resulted in little to no additional rain and much of it remained offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. In the final three days of August combined, the area saw only 1.58 inches of rain.
Pebble Creek Pumping
While Erika may not have been the “killer storm” many meteorologists were predicting, that doesn’t mean that flooding wouldn’t have been an issue if it had been a more organized weather system. In mid-August, Hillsborough County ordered water pumping for Pebble Creek. If you saw the last cover of the New Tampa Neighborhood News, you might know why, as flood waters rose along Pebble Creek Dr.
County spokesperson Andrea Roshaven says that, due to high flow volume in the Pebble Creek community’s lines (which are separate from the city’s), the county ordered several tanker trucks from EnviroWaste to divert wastewater into the city’s wastewater system through a manhole on Oak Preserve Blvd. in Live Oak Preserve near Bruce B. Downs Blvd.
“The City of Tampa was aware, the manhole is part of their wastewater system,” Roshaven explains. “This is a pretty typical preventive activity when a pump station has the potential to back up or overflow due to extremely high volumes.”
Most of New Tampa’s neighborhoods are within the city limits and use its utility system. However, Pebble Creek, Cross Creek and Live Oak Preserve all are located in unincorporated Hillsborough County and, up until recently, the Pebble Creek community had a private water and utility system. Since then, the county has purchased and taken over the management of Pebble Creek’s water system.
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