With near-daily storms and extensive rainfall Plant City is dealing with frequent flooding and oversaturated ground. The city has several plans in place to help tackle the growing issue.
Florida has put its “Sunshine State” nickname to the test this summer as a near-continuous wave of rain has impacted communities across the state. It’s certainly caused quite a few issues right here in Plant City.
Though excessive rainfall is by no means an anomaly for Florida, the last few months have come with rainfalls that have pushed the local ecosystems to the limit and led to flooding throughout the state. It’s a situation City Manager Bill McDaniel said they’ve been studiously monitoring and attempting to work around.
On Aug. 3, when the forecast for more heavy rains came in, the city quickly opened a sandbag station on Spencer Drive to offer residents a chance to help protect their homes. All they needed was a city utility bill or electric bill and ID to prove their residency and they could load up with the freshly filled bags.
There’s been more rain so far in August than there was in the entire month of July. June itself had 12.12 inches, according to the city’s rain gauge, and the land is simply oversaturated.
“Here’s what concerns me. We have the peak of hurricane season coming in September, we’re not even there yet and with the massive amount of rainfall we’ve had over the past few months, we are entering a worrisome period,” McDaniel said. “I’m very concerned if the tropics heat up and we’re hit with a tropical depression or a hurricane, even a minor one, that we’re going to have some real problems. We’re already so surcharged with water. People are getting flooded and they’re upset and rightly so.”
The issue, while multifaceted, lies largely in the canals that carry rainwater away from the city being overwhelmed with an influx of water. McDaniel said they get many inquiries regarding blockage issues in the storm-drains, but he said they’re working fine. It’s simply that there’s nowhere for that water to go.
McDaniel said he went to examine the Eastside Canal to monitor its levels and you can actually watch as the canal lowers how the water throughout the city disappears.
“We can’t stop rain and we can’t make water disappear if there’s nowhere for it to go, but we are making efforts to help in every way we currently can,” McDaniel said.
Part of those efforts include the sandbag operations and digging out ditches while others involve the city blocking streets once they flood to ensure no vehicles are harmed attempting to drive across them. He referenced a tier system when explaining the city’s course of action. There are things they can immediately do to help, which is tier one.
Some interim projects include the work the city is doing around Wilson Elementary School to combat stormwater issues. The city agreed to sink $800,000 into installing 11 drainage inlets to manage the corner flooding and street flooding that frequents the area.
Tier two includes things the city is currently working on that are further down the road, like possibly adding more ponds and outlets to the community to funnel excessive rain away from neighborhoods.
Tier three is also underway, but will require several more years of data before any action can be taken. Recently, the city decided to dedicate its funds to creating a Stormwater Master Plan. When it comes back in approximately two years, it will have a comprehensive analysis of the city’s stormwater system and how to address any potential issues that arise.
It will cost several hundred thousand dollars to complete, but the city was adamant it wanted to have the data in hand so it would know how best to tackle future issues. The city is partnering with the South Florida Water Management District to complete the study and is splitting the cost with the agency.
The city learned firsthand how tricky the rising water can be when it ran into a bit of an issue during street repairs last week. Crews were repaving a section of East Timberlane Road when, suddenly, things went awry. The heavy machinery for the repaving along with the massive vibrations from the equipment led to the collapse of a stormwater pipe under the road, which McDaniel said is decades old. The city was faced with a hole in the road along with the collapsed pipe and began the process of fixing it. First they thought the pipe was 36 inches, so they made the arrangements. Once they had it exposed in its entirety, they realized it was 48 inches and adjusted for that. While working on that, they realized they had a conflict with a manhole that was in there as well, so the city had to bring in a new concrete manhole.
Just as things began to turn back toward the side of progress, the skies opened up. The city was using two de-watering pumps and the rainwater still overwhelmed them, leading to a pseudo river on the street. The fast-moving water pouring into the hole eroded even more areas and led to further ground collapse. The next day, when McDaniel said he went to the scene, a large Trackhoe had slid into the hole during the collapse.
During Monday’s commission meeting, Mayor Rick Lott shared stories of residents bringing the crew food and water as they worked through the night to tackle the issue and said despite the barrage of problems everyone remained in good spirits. Thanks to the long hours, the issue was resolved and the road paving continued.
“I went out in that heavy rain and I saw the flooding with my own eyes,” McDaniel said. “I felt for everybody. This was breaking my heart. These are their homes, this is their neighborhood and it’s underwater. As city manager I take that responsibility and I ask myself, ‘What can we do about this? What are the solutions to this?’ Because I don’t want to see people flooded like that. I’m not relying on somebody telling me about this. I’m going out and seeing it with my own eyes.”
