Preparation Prevents Panic for Safety Harbor Residents

Tropical Storm Isaac may not land a direct hit on the Tampa Bay area, but with still in the forecast for the foreseeable future, we're not out of the woods yet.

But rather than lament another "false alarm" or get upset over unnecessary storm preparations, Safety Harbor residents and visitors seem to have taken the threat of Isaac in stride.

In fact, most people we spoke to on this gloomy Monday morning chalked the scare up to the price of living in Florida in the summertime.

"There hasn't been a hurricane that's directly hit here since Donna in the '60s," longtime resident Fred Ryder said as he sipped coffee outside of Starbucks on Main Street.

"But I'm ready if and when one does hit. I've got plenty of food and water stocked up. All you can do is prepare for the worst and hope for the best."

Over on the pier at the Marina, Lucy Freeman, a Largo resident who works in Tampa, was taking weather photos before she went to a doctor's appointment in Clearwater.

She echoed the sentiments many people feel every time one of these storms skirts our coast.

"You can't get too complacent around here," she cautioned. "I just try to take it one storm at a time. If it's going to happen, it's going to happen. All you can do is be ready for it."

The readiness of residents left grocery stores in good shape after this weekend.

At Sweetbay on McMullen Booth Road, store manager Shawn Buchanan reports that while sales were brisk over the weekend, he still has plenty of supplies on the shelves.

"We're getting a lot of deliveries today, so we're in good shape," he said via phone. "It was a good fire drill for us to make sure we were prepared."

City Manager Matt Spoor said there was no storm damage reported to the Public Works overnight, and things were quiet at the fire department as well.

And he noted if there's any good news to come out of this situation, it's the fact that the Tennessee delegates who are staying at the Safety Harbor Resort & Spa for the Republican National Convention will be .

The political connection was not lost on residents, either.

"Yeah, it was Mitt Romney who pushed the storm off," a friend of Ryder's joked.

See Also:

• Complete Coverage: Tropical Storm Isaac