One of Pasco's largest parks finally reopens after Hurricane Helene
The Brief
Seven months after Hurricane Helene, one of Pasco County's largest parks has reopened.
SunWest Park officially reopened last Saturday.
The park suffered major flood damage due to Helene's storm surge.
HUDSON, Fla. - Nearly seven months after Hurricane Helene, one of Pasco County's largest parks has reopened.
SunWest Park in Hudson is built on a former limestone mining operation and features a 70-acre spring-fed lake.
It's located right near the coast. Pasco County Public Works staff said it became inundated with water from the storm surge.
Dig deeper
The storm surge pushed sand to the middle of the lake and into the parking lot. Milton brought strong winds that damaged some structures.
Public Works Director Jason Mickel said heavy equipment was necessary to clean it up. Crews first clawed out the now dirty, mucky sand from the lake.
"They pulled a lot of that sediment out, got it back onto the exposed limestone that's around the perimeter of this lake," Mickel said.
Mickel said it wasn't just for aesthetic purposes but also because it was a safety hazard.
26 truckloads of fresh, clean sand were hauled in to restore the shoreline.
What's next
The park hosted a formal grand reopening last Saturday. It's open daily from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
For more information, click here.
The Source
FOX 13's Jennifer Kveglis collected the information in this story.
WATCH FOX 13 NEWS LIVE:
STAY CONNECTED WITH FOX 13 TAMPA:
Download the FOX Local app for your smart TV
Download FOX Local mobile app: Apple | Android
Download the FOX 13 News app for breaking news alerts, latest headlines
Download the SkyTower Radar app
Sign up for FOX 13's daily newsletter
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
A look at remaining Helene debris at South Holston Lake in SWVA
ABINGDON, Va. (WJHL) — Earlier this week, News Channel 11 spoke to Washington County, Virginia leaders who are addressing concerns about debris in South Holston Lake from Hurricane Helene. On Sunday, News Channel 11 crews visited the lake to see the state of the lake debris and talk to residents who frequent the waterway. At the Washington County Park and Campground, debris such as logs and limbs can be seen mostly in coves near the shoreline. PREVIOUS: Officials address South Holston Lake debris concerns Steven Statzer, the chairman of the board for the Washington County Park Authority, previously said the park is communicating with the Army Corps of Engineers to help with the cleanup. He said the agency is waiting on permitting to be able to help. In the meantime, he urged those who use the lake to use caution. One camper News Channel 11 spoke to said they've been doing just that because of the debris. 'We've seen a lot of large floating trees, limbs, deck parts,' said lake camper Anne Whitt. 'We actually encountered a house door yesterday.' Whitt said she still enjoys the water, just more cautiously. 'We're going a lot slower now. Because you just don't know where the trees are. We don't go out at night at all.' County leaders say that while the lake is federal property, they recognize the importance of the space as a recreational asset and are doing what they can to keep the waterway safe for all. Lake users are encouraged to remain vigilant and report any significant debris locations to authorities. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Power out? Here's what to do if the lights go off
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) — As severe weather rolls through the Lowcountry, many customers are losing power due to the storms. As of 1:55 p.m., 6,363 Dominion Energy customers are without power as 253 incidents are causing outages across the state. Nearly 2,000 Berkeley Electric Cooperative customers are without power, according to their outage map. Severe thunderstorm warning issued for Lowcountry counties Here is what you need to know regarding power outages. Do not call 911 to report power outages. Call your electric company to report as quickly as possible and include details. Unplug all appliances that were in use before the power outage. DOMINION ENERGY: 1-888-333-4465 or click here to report online. You can also report through the Dominion Energy App, free on Apple or Google Play stores. BERKELEY ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE: 1-888-253-4232 or click here to report online. EDISTO ELECTRIC: 803-245-5141 or click here to report online. SANTEE COOPER: 888-769-7688 or click here to report online. You can also check where power outages are and view details on the Dominion Energy power outage map here. How to use the power outage map: From the power outage map, you can report an outage or a streetlight outage or check the outage status by clicking the blue tabs at the top. In the upper left corner, you'll find the gray menu tab. There, you'll find a power outage summary where you can see incidents causing outages, total Dominion customers reporting outages, and total customers served. If you are looking for a specific location of an outage, click on the summary tab under the menu. Under the summary tab, you can view outages by county, ZIP code, and region. Under summary is the weather tab that turns green when clicked. After clicking, you can mark radar, giving you a weather radar overlay of your viewing area. To view the map legend, click the blue box on the bottom left with an i in the middle. The map legend will tell you the outage impact in your area and is typically updated every 10 minutes. Click on the white circle with red, blue, purple, green, and red on the map to show area outage information, including incidents causing outages and how many customers are affected. Click here to watch the Dominion Energy how to use power outage map video. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Android Authority
10 hours ago
- Android Authority
I found an Android weather app that looks like Google made it — only better
Andy Walker / Android Authority People were understandably upset when Google revamped its weather app and removed its lovable weather frog. Rain or shine, froggie was always ready to greet visitors looking for the day's conditions. However, with the launch of the Pixel 9 and the introduction of Pixel Weather, the frog moved to the old weather interface accessed through Google Search. While that's a suitable home, having to perform a search just to see the frog has become tiresome for many, including me. Thankfully, there's a third-party app that can help. What weather app do you use? 0 votes Whatever is on my phone to begin with. NaN % I use a third-party app (mention your choice in the comments). NaN % I don't use a weather app. NaN % Weather Master is an app I've grown to love over the past few weeks, and not just for its pro-frog stance. If I could redesign Pixel Weather, it would likely look like this. The app offers a perfect balance of clean aesthetics, playfulness, and useful information, creating a successful weather app experience. Unlike Pixel Weather, it makes efficient use of space without sacrificing these values. The use of Product Sans and Google's design language throughout the app makes it feel like an official Android app, but it gets many things right that Google's official app doesn't. A better Pixel Weather app than Pixel Weather? Andy Walker / Android Authority For starters, froggie is right there, headlining in an animation that describes the current weather conditions, along with a large readout of the current temperature and highs/lows. Below that, there's a Quick Summary section offering a more detailed text outlook, wind speed, wind gusts, and cloud cover details. This reminds me of Pixel Weather's AI summary, but it's much easier to grasp. For instance, today's outlook for my region reads: In the morning, you'll experience gentle drizzle, with a soft, light rain taking over as the day progresses. Great! I know that it's probably going to rain all day. Now I can plan my schedule, outfits, and dinner. It's concise, clear, and brief enough to read in a second or less, making a quick visit to the home screen all you need to view the day ahead. Below this is a small info strip detailing the week's temperature trend and, more interestingly, clothing and activity suggestions for the morning, evening, and night. Usually, these recommendations are pretty similar day to day, but it's a feature I'd rather have than not. Further down on the home screen, you'll find more Pixel Weather-inspired items and a widget section displaying individual metrics like humidity, pressure, and visibility. I'd prefer dedicated cards for each value to see the present and future progression. Tapping certain widgets, like wind, expands to show average speeds over a broader period. While that's sufficient, as I live in a windy region, it could offer more useful info, like gust strength. Weather Master is an app I've grown to love over the past few weeks, and not just for its pro-frog stance. In the Settings, Weather Master gives users a decent degree of control. Remember when I mentioned it's frog-friendly? You'll see 'frog-related descriptions' in the Quick Summary section by enabling the Froggy summary. It's as adorable as you think, but I prefer the clarity of the standard summary. Users can also disable the entire summary section, pushing other valuable information higher up on the home page. Weather Master is free, but the developer provides a surprisingly broad array of weather models and sources. You can keep the default Best match option if you're happy with the forecast, but I appreciate the level of customization available. It's good, but not quite great Andy Walker / Android Authority Weather Master isn't the complete package yet, and other weather apps outperform it in some areas. I would like to see deeper information for other metrics. As I mentioned, tapping on the wind tile expands it, but I get nothing about gusts. Pressure is another missed opportunity, with the app merely displaying the current value, not whether it's rising or falling. This detail is key to understanding how conditions may change in the coming hours. The app also has a radar feature, but it's not nearly as useful as it could be. For one, it doesn't seem to overlay any data in my region, and where it does offer rain intensity details in 10-minute increments, it has a habit of flashing between visual updates. This makes following a system's gradual progression difficult. Smoother transitions between data sets would be a huge upgrade. Despite these shortcomings and aside from giving Google's homeless frog a new place to settle, Weather Master is among the most approachable weather apps I've ever used. As someone who usually likes data-laden graphs, I still use this app as my first choice. It has a few issues and several bugs that haven't yet been addressed, but there are no deal-breakers here. Since the Pixel 9's arrival, I've been unsure whether Pixel Weather is truly a Google best-effort product. But after using Weather Master, I think the tech giant has been outdone once again by a minnow.
