Courtney Campbell, Bayshore Boulevard and other roads flooded from Eta

Flooding from Tropical Storm Eta forced officials to close part of the Courtney Campbell Causeway on Wednesday night, prohibiting some traffic on one of the three major spans across Tampa Bay.

Even though Tropical Storm Eta had already passed by the Pinellas County coast about 45 miles offshore by 10 p.m., the storm was still slinging water onto the shoreline and into the bay, inundating beach roads and low-lying areas with storm surge as high tide for much of the area approached in the 11 p.m. hour.

Two eastbound lanes of the Howard Frankland Bridge also were closed late Wednesday and early Thursday as waves crashed onto the bridge.

In Tampa, rising water flooded Bayshore Boulevard, with waves crashing violently over the sea wall.

Twitter users posted video from all over the bay area of the flooding. At Johns Pass, water flowed freely through a restaurant, according to video posted to Twitter by Mike’s Weather Page. Other video from Johns Pass showed flooding in yards.

Water was shin deep on Gulf Boulevard in Redington Shores, where pickup trucks were able to traverse but a vehicle was left stranded, according to ABC Action News reporter Ryan Smith.

Downtown Gulfport was also inundated with water from Boca Ciega Bay. The intersection of Shore Boulevard and Beach Boulevard was under water, and nearby Neptune Grill was flooded.

Elsewhere in Gulfport, the water climbed half way up mailboxes, according to Bay News 9 Reporter Scott Harrell.

In St. Petersburg, intersections of Shore Acres, a low-lying neighborhood that commonly floods, were under water. As was a stretch of Coffee Pot Boulevard NE, where water lapped over the seawall near the dry docks, according to video shot by Bay News 9 reporter Josh Rojas.

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