PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (CBS12) — After viewer videos showed water covering roads and vehicles struggling through several Port St. Lucie neighborhoods, the city’s own budget documents show where it plans to put money to reduce flooding. The city says that work is still in its early stages.

Port St. Lucie has received about 4 inches of rain over the past 48 hours, and another 2 to 4 inches could fall by the end of the week. City crews are monitoring conditions as water recedes, and officials are reminding drivers and pedestrians to stay out of flooded roads because it is hard to tell how deep the water is.

Frank Camarda, who has lived in the area for more than 20 years near SW California Boulevard and SW Plantation Terrace, said Tuesday night’s flooding turned his street into a detour. He said drivers piled in while trying to bypass flooded roads, and he believes Savona Boulevard was also underwater. Camarda said he has not seen flooding on his own street before, but he has watched water pool near Oak Hammock a couple of times. He also said city crews used to clean the swale in front of his home about once a month, and he believes that has stopped.

“I’ve been waiting for these guys to clean up. I haven’t seen them,” Camarda said.

City spokesperson Scott Samples said the rain came in too fast for the system to keep up. He said the canals, swales and retention ponds were already full, which makes it harder for water to move. At one location the city monitored, he said, about two feet of water arrived in roughly 30 minutes. Samples said the water had receded from most roadways by about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, and he described that as the stormwater system doing what it is designed to do. He said Public Works checks drainage before heavy rain and is working to keep swales, drains and canals clear, but there is only so much crews can do when that much water arrives at once.

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Samples said residents who cannot get home should find another place to stay if they can, and that the city is working closely with police on safety.

The city’s proposed capital plan for fiscal years 2027 through 2031, submitted to City Council on April 13, includes the Oak Hammock Watershed Improvement Project. It would add new retention ponds, pump systems and upgraded valves. The plan shows $8 million in each of the first two years and $7 million in each of the next two, for $30 million in all, paid for through stormwater bond financing.

Samples said the city has just begun early data analysis for Oak Hammock, which he placed in the California Boulevard area. He said that work will guide the design of a multi-phase project that could include new retention ponds, pumps for canals, or even raising the roadway at California and Savona boulevards so water drains off. He said it is hard to predict when residents will see construction or a finished project, because the city must first gather data, settle on a design and line up funding. He called Oak Hammock a priority for the city.

“It will move as fast as it possibly can,” Samples said.

According to the city, the project covers a large area east of Interstate 95, north of the C-23 Canal and Port St. Lucie Boulevard, and west of Florida’s Turnpike.

The money would come partly from a $6 increase in the annual stormwater assessment, which the city’s website lists as proposed. That would raise the assessment from $183 to $189. The city says the assessment helps pay for five projects aimed at flooding and water flow: Oak Hammock, the Elkcam Basin, the E-8 Canal, Hogpen Slough, and faster replacement of swales and culverts.

The city says its drainage system includes about 200 miles of canals, 1,200 miles of swales, and more than 6,000 culverts. It also notes that maintaining swales and driveway culverts, from the edge of the pavement to the property line, is the property owner’s responsibility under city code.