Plant City residents woke to downed power lines, fallen trees, intersections with no lights and more after high winds from Hurricane Hermine blew through the Winter Strawberry Capital of the World Thursday, Sept. 1.
Plant City Police Department was cautioning residents of several problem areas at about 10 a.m. Friday, Sept. 1. It wrote on its Facebook:
"The City of Plant City did well during the night, our current issues are:
– Traffic lights out at Baker Street at Collins Street (treat as four-way stop)
– Traffic lights out at Baker Street at Wheeler Street. (treat as four-way stop)
– Downed power lines at Vermont and Herring streets. (Vermont Street closed from Herring to Gilchrist streets)
– Barricades at intersection of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard at Palmer St. due to roof damage on the southeast corner of intersection.
– Downed tree at Renfro and Warnell streets. (Renfro Street closed from Warnell to Merrin streets)
There are no wide spread power outages and all streets (except minor streets mentioned above) are open.
There is some minor standing water on several street edges, please be careful when driving."
Many residents said their power had been out for hours, some more than 10 hours. According to a map on TECO's website, there were nine areas in Plant City that put 3,044 homes without power around 8:45 a.m. Friday, Sept. 2. In Dover, there were two areas with 769 homes out of power. In TECO's entire coverage area 11, 299 homes were out of power. It rose to over 12,000 and then fell to 10,860 by about 11:20 a.m.
"We are still without power on Pinedale Drive. Going on 12 hours," Rebecca Trinkle Rothman wrote on Facebook.
According to the FDA, food in the fridge or freezer should be good if the power was out for no more than four hours or the food or temperature in the freezer is less than 40 degrees. If food still has ice crystals, it is safe to refreeze or cook.
Hurricane Hermine made landfall at about 1:30 a.m. Friday, Sept. 2, near St. Marks, Florida. Winds were 80 mph and gusts put a tornado watch on seven counties in central Florida, including Hillsborough County. It then weakened to a tropical storm.
"The wind last night was wild," Jeff Wallnofer posted on Facebook. "I heard the 'freight train' sound about 8 p.m. Guess how fast that gets you going."
Winds blew the roof off a building in Historic Downtown Plant City building on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard near Palmer Street. Nearby, a bridal party was getting their nails done at Joy Nails.
"Even after losing power, they stayed open late and finished the bride, Morgan Davis', nails by the light of cell phones. Now that is customer service!" Ashley Galloway said.
Strong winds come from a hurricane's feeder bands. These are squally bands of showers characterized by strong gusty winds and heavy rains. These bands become more pronounced as the storm intensifies and are fed by the warm ocean.
Tropical storms become hurricanes once winds reach 75 miles per hour.