Still Offshore, Tropical Storm Debby Makes a Lasting Impact on Land

Sheila Janusz lives in Valrico, up the road from the Alafia River, and she has known from family members who have lived in her community before that major flooding is a very real threat.

"We haven't physically gone through it and we were hoping to sell before it happened," she said in an interview at her home June 25. "But now we can't do it until the water goes away."

That will happen, but in the meantime, the heavy rains from Tropical Storm Debby, which at the time was still off the Gulf Coast of Florida, made their mark on River Road and in Greater Brandon and beyond.

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The water in her front yard was mid-high, Janusz noted June 25. "The kids are running through it and having fun, like they always do. Let them enjoy it while they can."

They always wanted a pool, she said. "Now, they have a river pool."

Further south, in Brandon, at the Copper Bell Cafe, Jill Rohwer on June 25 was serving meals for the third round of "Cooking for a Cause III," a celebrity chef fundraiser for charity.

The day before, she noted, she was driving home from work and witnessed the effects of the Gulf Coast system.

"The pond across the street, between the [Brandon Regional] Hospital and the [Brandon Regional] Library [and Center Place Fine Arts & Civic Association] was overflowing," Rohwer said. "I've never seen it that high."

Past Lumsden and John Moore roads a tree "had partially fallen over and was in the road," she added.

"And this morning when I woke up there was a tree on my road, which I usually take to go onto John Moore," Rohwer said. "Instead, I had to drive on my neighbor's yard so I could get to Kings Avenue."

Still, Rohwer said, she is taking the bad weather — and what's to come — in stride.

"I've been through worse," she said. "I'm an Alaskan. This is nothing."

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