WILDWOOD, Fla. — Tropical Storm Eta spared Central Florida the damage that it brought to the Tampa Bay area, though its wind and rain knocked down tree limbs, created hazardous roads, and left thousands without power — particularly in Marion and Sumter counties — as it passed through the region early today.
What You Need To Know
- Most of Central Florida spared after Eta causes relatively little damage
- Tree limbs knocked down, power out for some, particularly in northern areas
- Storm caused flooding on Gulf Coast, including in Pinellas, where 33 rescued
- RELATED: PHOTOS: Eta Battered the Tampa Bay Area With Wind, Rain and Flooding
- RELATED: LIVE BLOG: Get live updates of Eta in Central Florida
More than 5,000 customers in Marion and Sumter counties lost power from the effects of Eta. Its outer bands also brought heavy surf and erosion to coastal communities such as Daytona Beach and sudden bouts of severe weather to places such as Sanford, where Spectrum News 13 video footage Wednesday showed trees bending to near breaking point.
In northern parts of Central Florida, Eta prompted school closings and the delay of municipal services such as trash pickup. Marion and Sumter stood among 21 counties for which Gov. Ron DeSantis had declared a state of emergency in advance of Eta.
The western part of Tampa Bay fared much worse than Central Florida. Rain and storm surge brought flooding to Gulf coastal communities, and the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office used boats and other vessels to rescue 33 people from homes and roadways. On Wednesday, Manatee County officials said first responders received a call about an electrocution and found a Bradenton Beach man dead in his home, which carried standing water.
Eta made landfall on the peninsula at about 4 a.m. Thursday near Cedar Key with 50 mph winds, from where it moved northwestward toward Jacksonville.
That put the northern part of the Central Florida region in the wheelhouse of the storm’s more-potent eastern side.
The storm’s effects in Central Florida continued after daylight, particularly in Sumter and Marion counties, where tree limbs dotted roadways and an occasional fallen tree filled a yard.
Eta weakened as it moved away and sped up, on course this afternoon to exit northeastern Florida and move into the Atlantic.
Eta emerged as an extraordinary storm in an extraordinary storm season. It made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in Nicaragua, meandered and changed course, made landfall as a tropical storm in Cuba, flooded South Florida with rain, meandered and hung around western Cuba, tracked back into the Gulf, became a Category 1 hurricane, creeped northward along Florida’s southwestern coast, and put much of the Sunshine State on edge.
The storm became the first tropical storm to hit Florida in November since Mitch in 1998. Also, the formation of Tropical Storm Theta in the Atlantic this week marked the 29th named storm for the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season — a record.