Ceiling collapses but tiny grocery rises to occasion

At Placita Mexico #1 grocery, two men wrestled a tarp onto a roof painted in the red, white and green of the Mexican flag while the parking lot below, obscured by 6 inches of brown stormwater, teemed with customers.

The Garcias had come to see how their store had weathered Hurricane Frances, but they were doing a brisk business Monday morning in the Polk County community where about half the population of 4,700 is Hispanic.

“We just opened to check the place, but everybody just rushed in,” said Ariel Garcia, 18, as his father, Rafael, scurried between customers and monitoring the roof work.

Polk County had the dubious distinction of being the only county to endure the eyes of hurricanes Charley and Frances, but preliminary assessments showed Charley to be the more damaging of the two.

As rain and tornado watches continued Monday, flooding was a concern. The Peace River was expected to crest Monday night at 9.8 feet in Bartow, or 1.8 feet above flood stage, covering private roads in rural southern parts of the county.

Water overwhelmed ditches on both sides of Rifle Range Road cutting through the middle of Wahneta. When the rain paused, mosquitoes swarmed.

A small generator provided just enough electricity to power the cash registers at Placita Mexico #1.

People from the waterlogged neighborhood flooded into the dark, damp store with wet feet and slogged back through the same puddle with bags full of soda and beer.

Water dripped in the corner where the suspended ceiling had collapsed. A man swept the ceiling from the floor.

The Garcias’ grocery had already taken a hit from Charley three weeks before.

The store, which had doubled as a shelter for a few families afraid to stay in their mobile homes during Charley, lost all of its perishables.

It was losing the perishables again after Frances, along with its ceiling.

Tens of thousands of customers were without power across Polk as of 4 p.m. Monday. Power crews rushed to make repairs between bands of storms, having to retreat when winds rose.

The Red Cross closed all of its shelters in Polk’s public schools but consolidated some remaining residents in community shelters in Bartow, Mulberry and Winter Haven.

Christopher Sherman can be reached at csherman@orlandosentinel.com or 863-422-3395.