Clearwater Cleans up, Prepares for More Tropical Storm Debby

Heavy rains pelted the Tampa Bay area for hours throughout the weekend, leaving cars abandoned on streets that became rivers.

After , residents and city crews worked to clean up and get ready for the next wave of what Tropical Storm Debby planned to offer.

Kris Christian surveyed the damage along Mandalay Avenue with her daughter Janet Monday morning. They came down from New York Saturday to celebrate Grandmother’s 95th birthday.

Kris was worried . She has been through some storms before including being in St. Thomas during Hurricane Hugo in 1989.

The flooding is what bothered her most and Christian even drove back to their rented beach house around 4 p.m. as roads filled with water. 

“It was insane,” Christian said. “I found out a ‘91 Caprice will make it through.”

There was little water recession Monday. 

Flooding was rampant in north Clearwater Beach neighborhoods including Carlouel. On the mainland, Enterprise Road between Village and Frisco Drives were closed. Smallwood, Glenwood, Rosewood and Rosemere were also closed because heavy rainfall flooded the streets.

By nightfall most of the bridges over Tampa Bay were closed including the Courtney Campbell, Howard Frankland and Sunshine Skyway.

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Joe Mirasola was rode his bike Monday in north Clearwater Beach to get some staples from the grocery store; bread, peanut butter and jelly and milk.

He came down with his family for the week from Wisconsin to stay at their beach house Saturday. The water line came to about two inches of their rental house on Mandalay Avenue and Bay Esplanade.

Mirasola saw kayakers paddling down streets and trucks making their way through washed out streets. He was taking one last loop on his bike to see how the beach looked.

“The kids are a little stir crazy,” Mirasola said.

Between the storm surge and high tide there was not much beach left.

Typical white sandy walkways near beach access points were calf deep full of water. Just beyond the dunes eight foot waves crashed against the shore.

The scene is perfect for Chad Webb.

He spent about three hours Sunday surfing and planned to take on some waves Monday too. Webb said he took on eight and 12 foot barrels.

“If you set up right you can catch some gnarly waves,” Webb said.

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By the ready at the Public Works Complex.

"We provide sand for any type of flooding or heavy rainfall if it continues for a longer period of time," said Heather Parsons, a city spokeswoman. "We make sand available to our residents when the ground becomes oversaturated and if it’s occurring for a lingering period of time."

Rob Barker pulled up in his Ford truck to fill up a few bags. He has a rental property that nearly got soaked Sunday.

Barker’s thoughts Monday: “I got to get some sand.”

JP Atherholt, Clearwater Beach recreation supervisor, stayed busy Monday.

Atherholt was out at the Public Works Complex filling sandbags Monday afternoon to keep the Clearwater Beach Recreation Center from flooding again.

Aside from mopping and cleaning, all five of the new lifeguard towers were stuck in sand just feet from the tide. Tower five got it worse. A piece of one wall came off and the remaining structure was buried in nearly three feet of sand.

The towers are built on skids that allow them to be easily moved to the higher ground on the back part of the beach. Debby surprised many with the amount of rain that fell Sunday.

“This storm was unpredictable and we got very short notice that we were going to be hit with this much rain and this much storm surge,” said Elizabeth Watts, police spokeswoman, “To add to the short notice problem it happened on a Sunday when the equipment operators are off duty.”

Watts said efforts were made to scramble operators but it was too late. Crews used heavy equipment to try and dislodge the towers Monday. However they were only able to get tower four removed because even at low tide the structures still were in the water.

“Our fear was that we would probably damage them more by pulling them out while they are buried in the sand and water than the future storm surge will damage them,” Watts said. “When the water recedes we will be able to dig them out and remove them.”