Tampa Bay prepares for Fourth of July first, Elsa second
Many bay area residents focused on getting ready for Independence Day over the storm. Some managed to do both.
Â
Â
Garrett Adams, 23, and Daylon Shepherd, 22, plan to throw a house party from their Tampa home this Fourth of July. [ Josh Fiallo ]
Updated 3 hours ago
While Florida remains in the path of the stubborn but uncertain Tropical Storm Elsa, which briefly gained hurricane strength, Tampa Bay residents spent Saturday focused on their real priority:
Getting ready to celebrate the Fourth of July.
âWeâll worry about the storm after we have our fun,â said 43-year-old Esmeralda Lopez as she shopped in West Tampa.
This past weekend, several members of the Tenth District Volunteer Fire Department traveled to South Bend, Indiana to receive recognition for rescuing two civilians trapped in Swift water during Tropical Storm Isaias last summer.
She was a mother of the mountains.
For decades, Eula Hall cared for her people in Appalachian Kentucky, helping heal the sick and give voice to the vulnerable.
From the day nearly a half-century ago when she started her Mud Creek Clinic in Grethel until her death on Saturday at age 93, her mission was to improve health in Eastern Kentucky from the ground up. And that was no easy task in one of the most impoverished places in America, where people die of cancer, heart disease, addiction and other ailments at some of the nation s highest rates.
She was an Appalachian legend, described as a saint by a congressman recognizable by the halo of gray and white hair framing her face.