From July 24 to July 31, Plant City saw 17 inches of rain. For Assistant City Manager Bill McDaniel, preparing for this kind of weather is business as usual.
“As soon as we see the forecast and begin to get alerts, we start different elements of the plan,” McDaniel said.
The plan for dealing with this type of weather involves all of the key departments in the city, including the fire, police and engineering departments.
“Everybody talks about what their response plans are,” McDaniel said. “No one person is responsible for checking everything.”
These departments take a number of preventative measures to ensure that the bad weather will have as minimal an impact as possible on the city. From mowing and clearing ditches to offering residents free sandbags, the city’s departments are prepared for the worst.
PREVENTATIVE MEASURES
Within the last 10 years, the east side canal, which runs north through Gilchrist Park toward Cherry Street, received a major reworking that has allowed it to protect areas that would formerly flood, such as Calhoun and Laura streets. Currently, the city’s west side canal is receiving similar work.
“It’s still in the design process,” McDaniel said. “But it’s being improved even further.”
The city’s canals help manage water flow. If they are properly maintained, the canals can prevent water from potentially flooding nearby roads.
“They’re not pretty, but they do a wonderful job for us,” McDaniel said. “The proof of that investment was in the way we handled this major rain event.”
McDaniel encourages residents who are in the city to look at the ditches in front of their homes. If the ditches are obstructed, let the city know, he said.
“Leaves and tree branches can accumulate,” McDaniel said. “Those things need to be open for water to flow through them. Overall the system that keeps Plant City from flooding works very well.”
Although there were no major road closures during the most recent rainstorms, the city is ready to develop alternate routes if necessary.
“We would put up barricades and put in a traffic diversion, put in detours,” McDaniel said.
Besides the potential damage to vehicles, excessive water can also cause erosion in the roads. If this happens, McDaniel said, the city’s engineers and contractors are called in to look at the problem. However, keeping the city’s canals and ditches cleared significantly reduces the chance for flooding.
“This city has people working out there every single day … ready for just what we experienced,” McDaniel said. “They are largely unseen efforts, but people benefit from it. The credit goes to them.”
Residents who live on the outskirts of town, however, aren’t as lucky.
OUT OF THE CITY
For those living in unincorporated Plant City, they must either maintenance their own properties or rely on Hillsborough County for general support when their homes are damaged from flooding.
Julie Hasting lives with her family on about four acres of land on Stanley Road. This month, her pasture flooded from all the rain. Hasting estimates that her land received 12 inches of rain during last week’s downpours, but she can’t be sure — her rain gauges are overflowing. Her home and barn are built on higher ground, but her livestock weren’t so lucky. Many of them got sick from the constant rain. Hasting and her family dug their own trenches to get their animals out of harm’s way.
It was the worst she has seen her pasture since the 2004 hurricanes.
Like the city, the county offers sandbags to residents, but they are limited to six per person. Hasting said that sandbags elsewhere were scarce because of the rain.
“[The prices] were outrageous,” she said.
Hasting said she was told by Hillsborough County that residents were not allowed to clean their own ditches.
“I’m worried about a hurricane,” Hasting said. “Half of my pasture is underwater. (Hillsborough County has) come out one time to clean our canals.”
She said the response is always the same: We’ll get someone out as soon as we can.
A county spokesperson said it’s up to residents to clean out ditches on their property. The ditch that caused Hasting’s flooding runs directly through her property.
The county does come out to assist in other ways.
Andrea Rofhaven is a community relations coordinator with Hillsborough County. Rofhaven said the county completed a service call near Stanley Road that involved cleaning a storm pipe on Aug. 3. The county also opened a service ticket for ditch cleaning on Aug. 6, but they have not yet fulfilled the request.
“We’ve gotten hundreds and hundreds of tickets,” Rofhaven said. “We’re working as quickly as we can.”
Although the county assures residents that they will assist with some tickets, they do not have a timeline of when these services will be completed. For now, the county is focused on inoperable roads and homes that have received damage from flooding, Rofhaven said.
Contact Emily Topper at etopper@plantcityobserver.com.
SANDBAG PICKUP
City: 1302 W. Spencer St.
County: 4702 Sydney Road