St. Marks flood

[HurricaneJoe22]

ST. MARKS

Dennis drenches tiny fishing town

About 200 miles from where Dennis came ashore and due south of the state capital, a small fishing village was surprised to find itself flooded.

BY MARY ELLEN KLAS AND TINA CUMMINGS

meklas@herald.com

ST. MARKS - In this tiny fishing village more than 150 miles from the eye of the storm, Hurricane Dennis played its most devious trick Sunday: Just as the worst of the weather seemed to pass, high tides hoisted a 10-foot surge of churning water over the pier and flooded every inch of the town.

At Posey's Oyster Bar, a gritty hangout for locals and famously frequented by politicos from the state capital, the water was two feet high. The Riverside Cafe had a river of debris floating by it.

At Bo Lynn's Grocery, when the water was two feet high on the gas pumps and the fuse boxes started to smoke, manager Joy Brown and her sons hitched a ride to dry land on a passing boat.

''Everybody had lots of water, but no one was hurt,'' said Zoe Mansfield, city manager and 40-year resident. ``We were kind of helpless. We just stood there and could see it coming.''

The water began to rise slowly Sunday, as it has done in other hurricanes, but not since Hurricane Kate in 1985 has it gotten this high, she said.

The town sits at the juncture of the St. Marks and Wakulla rivers, 20 miles directly south of Tallahassee.

Most of the town's 325 residents had moved to higher ground, heeding the call for mandatory evacuation, Mansfield said. So when the rising water stranded about a dozen stragglers who decided to stay home, Mansfield found a neighbor with a flat-bottom boat and brought people to dry land.

One of them was Betty Smith. Her home was first pummeled by a pine tree limb and then swamped in ankle-deep water.

''I saw the snakes swimming by. That's what scared me,'' she said, still shaken hours after the ordeal.

Bob Stover, a two-year resident, is without flood insurance -- and now without hope. ''My world is crumbling,'' he said mournfully hours after the tide had subsided and cleared the street in front of his house. ``Everything was floating around.''

Frisbees, potted plants, tree limbs and other debris swirled by in the water next to flooded cars and trucks.

Pat Ward, a member of the county fire-rescue department, warned people walking in waist deep water to be wary of water moccasins and balls of fire ants that had been seen on the water's surface.

By nightfall, James Farnsworth and Bryan Warr were dispatched to fetch food for their co-workers stranded at St. Marks Fish House on the edge of the St. Marks River.

The pair spent an hour boating out to dry land, then hitched a ride into nearby Woodville to bring back two large pizzas and a 12-pack of Michelob.

About 125 people planned to spend the night at Crawfordville Elementary, a shelter staffed by Red Cross officials, said Wakulla County Sheriff Maurice Langston.

He and Emergency Management Director Joe Blanchard will lead a team to assess damage throughout the county, he said. Most of the badly flooded areas didn't have power, since electric companies shut it off because of the rising water.

Smith, whose home was damaged by wind and water, said that while the storm drove her away from her house Sunday, she would be back.

``The other choice is to live in ice storms up north or tornadoes out west. I think I'll stay right here.''

Tallahassee Democrat reporter Aetna Smith contributed to this report.

[Hurricaneman]

[sprink52]

These people may have had more overall damage from Dennis than Pensacola did!