Hillsborough County residents take precautions in case Isaac comes this way

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. - It's not just officials prepping for Tropical Storm Isaac.  Homeowners are taking steps to protect their property.

Ellen Broussard and her husband Robert are stocking up on sand bags, just in case the storm comes this way.

They used to live in Louisiana and learned a valuable lesson from past hurricanes.  Broussard said, "We're filling 25 bags of this mud here to put around our property.  We had a tornado that took half of the house and in '65, we had Hurricane Betsy take the original half."

The Broussards moved here four years ago and plan to put the sandbags around their home in Lake Chase. There are several lakes around their property that fill up when it rains hard. Broussard said, "You just have to put up with nature the way it is and just prepare for several weeks of inconvenience."

More:  Hillsborough County sandbags information - http://wfts.tv/SZtNm6 .

Hillsborough County Storm Water crews are also preparing for that possible inconvenience. This past June, Tropical Storm Debby flooded a neighborhood, near North 15th Street, damaging several buildings.

Hillsborough County Public Works crews plan to pump water out of a nearby retention pond in the next few days. Mike Williams, the Hillsborough County Engineer who oversees the plan, said, "Putting pumps at donut pond that would tie into a force main that has already been constructed that would go straight to the Hillsborough River."
    
Williams says they are working on a project with the City of Tampa that would put pumps in another pond to pump even more water out, but that won't be complete until next year.

Broussard is not waiting around.  "I just hope everything is good and no one gets too much damage."