Photo by GREG KAHN

Bruce Simonsen of TFR Enterprises, gathers a large pile of debris to be picked up Wednesday, August 20, 2008, the day after Tropical Storm Fay made landfall in Naples, flooding streets and knocking out power to thousands of area residents.

NAPLES — A federal disaster declaration Gov. Charlie Crist requested Wednesday could help pay an estimated $7.4 million tab Tropical Storm Fay left in Collier County.

Yards remained flooded, canals brimmed and thousands of people spent another day Wednesday without power in Collier County, a day after Fay made landfall at Cape Romano early Tuesday.

The storm soaked parts of Collier County with 8 inches of rain, but Fay was just getting started on a cross-state slog that could dump 30 inches of rain on Florida’s central Atlantic coast, forecasters said.

Fay stalled out Wednesday over Cape Canaveral in Brevard County and was causing historic levels of flooding in southern Brevard.

“This storm is turning into a serious, catastrophic flooding event, particularly in southern Brevard County,” Crist told reporters after a trip to Jacksonville to assess damage.

In a letter to President Bush, Crist asked that the disaster declaration cover all of Florida’s counties.

Crist said state agencies already have spent $24.1 million on its emergency response at a particularly vulnerable time for the cash-strapped state.

“The state’s ability to respond has been effected by the state’s current revenue shortfall (1.8 billion) as some agencies do not possess the historical general revenue to commit its full compliment of resources,” Crist wrote in the letter to Bush (sic, as worded in the letter).

Collier County sent numbers to the state Wednesday that show the emergency response to Fay cost various local governments $1.6 million, cost county government $720,000 in debris removal costs and caused $5.1 million worth of damage to the county’s beaches.

“I’m sure it will go up as we really get down and dig in to the numbers,” said John Yonkosky, the director of the county’s Office of Budget and Management.

A federal disaster declaration would trigger federal emergency aid money to defray government costs and to repair damage to businesses and homes.

Damage assessment teams so far have found only minimal damage to private homes and businesses, though, Yonkosky said.

The most lasting effect of Fay’s visit this week has been standing water and power outages.

Crist’s letter seeking federal assistance said soggy fields from Fay likely will force vegetable growers in South Florida, including Collier County, to postpone planting for 30 days, reducing the vegetable crop for the 2008 growing season.

Flooded yards and driveways were a common sight across Golden Gate Estates on Wednesday.

“It’s pretty darn wet,” Estates Civic Association President Tim Nance said.

Drainage canals are working, but it will take time for floodwaters to recede, said Clarence Tears, director of the Big Cypress Basin, the local arm of the South Florida Water Management District.

“The system is catching up,” Tears said.

The Golden Gate canal system drains 4/10ths of an inch every day across its 120-square-mile basin — which equates to about two weeks to drain 8 inches of rain, Tears said.

That time could be cut in half as water evaporates or soaks into the ground, assuming another tropical system doesn’t come calling, Tears said.

Collier County stormwater crews spent Wednesday unclogging drains and checking culverts and expect to return to pre-storm status later Thursday.

Life slowly got back to normal Wednesday as Florida Power & Light Co. crews returned power to all but 2,600 customers in Collier County by 6 p.m., down from 34,000 households at the height of the outage.

About 8,000 customers of Lee County Electric Cooperative lost power in Immokalee, Marco Island and Everglades City, but LCEC reported power had been restored to all its customers by early Wednesday.

FPL spokeswoman Sharon Bennett said power would be “essentially restored” to all of Collier County by Wednesday night.

The lights came back on at Terrence Collier’s apartment on Manorca Avenue in East Naples at about 3 p.m. after a 36-hour wait for crews to arrive to cut apart a towering pine tree that had fallen across power lines in his neighborhood.

Collier, 44, used his car to run a light in his house and recharge his cell phone and survived on pizza and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, he said.

With the power back on, Collier planned to catch up on e-mails and then go out for dinner.

“I got a chance to take a shower and iron some clothes,” Collier said.

Bill Thorne wasn’t sure how much more he could take after a day without power.

A string of recent surgeries already had left him uncomfortable, the refrigerated medicine he needs had spoiled and he and his wife, Sharon, were on the verge of packing up and heading to an air-conditioned hotel room.

Instead, the power came back on in their neighborhood and the Thornes were looking forward to a home-cooked meal, Bill Thorne said.

Correspondent Michael Peltier contributed to this report from Tallahassee.

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Collier County officials aren’t planning a special collection of yard waste following Tropical Storm Fay, and have issued a few reminders about preparing horticultural debris for collection:

• Limbs and large branches must be removed by the property owner or landscape contractor and taken to a landfill or recycling center.

• Branches no larger than 4 inches in diameter can be cut into 4-foot lengths and bound with string into bundles no heavier than 50 pounds.

• Leaves and smaller items must be placed in paper sacks or personal containers. Plastic bags will not be accepted.

• Up to 10 bundles, paper bags or personal containers of debris will be collected each week from each customer on normal recycling days. They must be placed on the curb next to recycling containers.

• Customers with questions should call Public Utilities and Customer Service at (239) 252-2380.

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