Rain drowns some brush fire worries

Heavy rainfall washed out some weekend plans and reduced the danger of brush fires, yet it wasn't enough to bring an end to the effects of the dry spring.

Clarence Tears, director of the Big Cypress Basin, the local arm of the South Florida Water Management District, reported little to no effects from weekend rains.

"Portions of the system are reacting to the rainfall, but we've been so dry that most of it seeps into the ground," Tears said. "The retention areas designed in big developments and roadside swales are filling up."

Although most of the rain was swallowed into the ground, it did manage to sprinkle some relief on local fire departments, said Orly Stolts, deputy chief of operations of the North Naples Fire Control and Rescue District.

"It definitely helped any threat of fire danger. That amount of rain is really definitely going to make a difference on any big fires," he said. "All the big brush fires have kind of gone by the wayside because of all the rain we've gotten."

Lee and Collier counties are now among the wettest in the state. The Caloosahatchee district of the Florida Division of Forestry saw its readings on the drought index fall 22 points on Sunday alone, making it the only region with a reading under 500 — 497 on a scale that tops out at 800.

Lee County saw the biggest difference, falling l28 points. Collier dropped 23.

The lower the rating, the better as far as brush fires are concerned.

"It looks like we're in a regular rain pattern now and that's what we needed to see," said Gerry LaCavera, the Forestry wildfire mitigation specialist, about moisture responsible for pushing the drought index for Lee and Collier counties into a normal range for the season. "Things are looking much better now than they were a week ago. We're in pretty good shape."

The rampant rainfall was the result of a low-pressure system, which then moved into northern Florida and will "kind of dissipate into that area," Richard Rude, forecaster with the National Weather Service office in Ruskin, said Monday.

But don't hang anything out to dry just yet. More afternoon showers are forecast, according to Rude.

The National Weather Service forecast for the rest of the week: Naples should expect partly sunny mornings. Afternoons are partly cloudy. And a chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly in the afternoon, become isolated in the evening.

Lows are in the low to mid- 70s and highs around 90.

Staff writer Anne Marie Apollo contributed to this report.