ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Residents in the Harshaw Lake Park neighborhood in St. Petersburg, which lies in the Disston Heights area with an elevation up to 60 feet, have become increasingly concerned about flooding and stormwater system maintenance.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
Harshaw Lake Park residents said their streets have been filling with water higher and faster since Hurricane Milton hit last year
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Two residents spoke out at a city council meeting in August asking for more storm drain maintenance\u00a0\u00a0
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Public Works sent a team to scope storm drains and remove debris from drainage ditches\u00a0
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A city spokeperson said\u00a0drain cleaning does not guarantee the prevention of flooding<\/p>\n
\u201cWe noticed this summer, we started to have heavy rain events, as we do every year in St. Pete,\u201d said resident Heidi Stiller. \u201cIt just seemed that the water was coming up faster than it used to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stiller believes that when Hurricane Milton blew through the area last October, the record rainfall, which sent nearly one inch of floodwater into her home, also clogged the storm drains and ditches. Milton dumped 18.3 inches of rain in St. Petersburg, according to the National Weather Service.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have an event like Milton, which really was an exceptional rain event\u2026 a thousand-year storm for the City of St. Pete,\u201d she said. \u201cNo stormwater system that was built four decades ago is going to be able to handle an event like that. And we certainly understand that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stiller understands hurricanes and the impacts from sea level rise better than most after having worked at NOAA for more than 20 years before leaving the agency.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow because of climate change, we\u2019re having heavier precipitation events,\u201d she said. \u201cA warmer atmosphere can just hold more water. So we\u2019re getting these rain bombs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stiller bought her home in 2016, based on her background.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe picked this neighborhood because it was not at flood risk,\u201d she said. \u201cBut in Florida, where it rains, it can flood.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stiller said that she and her neighbor, Jen French, have been documenting the high water incidents on the city\u2019s SeeClickFix app. They have also sent messages asking for their storm drains to be inspected but only get the same generic response.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the city gets a lot of reports about stormwater and so they have a stock response,\u201d she said. \u201cThe stock response is we\u2019re working on a stormwater plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
The residents said that some of the drainage ditches that connect a series of retention lakes have overgrown vegetation. Frustrated with the city\u2019s response, Stiller and French appeared at the Aug. 21 city council meeting and spoke out during public comment.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease do the maintenance on the systems we have today,\u201d said French. \u201cOur neighbors have put in multiple complaints, with multiple pictures, and we have not had a response.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease don\u2019t soft pedal the risk,\u201d said Stiller. \u201cResidents need to know to inform our own important economic decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n
After that public appearance, Stiller said she got a call from Public Works, and crews have since been out to the neighborhood.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe city has been in touch with me and my neighbor,\u201d she said. \u201cThey have had folks out.\u201d<\/p>\n
City spokesperson Samantha Bequer said Public Works conducted a visual inspection and\u00a0some\u00a0debris was removed at the southern tip of Harshaw Lake.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor context, this narrow opening was cleared shortly after Milton, but some growth occurred in the last year,\u201d she stated. \u201cIf cattails or other vegetation needs to be clear. The City intends to remove it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The crew also scoped the pipes with a camera to determine if any additional work is needed to help the system drain faster, according to Bequer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe City regularly maintains drains to prepare them for wet weather events that may cause flooding,\u201d she stated. \u201cHowever, it should be noted that flooding during wet weather events is not related to drain cleaning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bequer said drain cleaning does not guarantee the prevention of flooding, and often the force from the water will push any remaining debris through the drain. SeeClickFix continues to be the best way for residents to report stormwater issues directly to the City, according to Bequer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Residents in the Harshaw Lake Park neighborhood in St. Petersburg, which lies in the Disston…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1011,274,1190,2968,115,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,278,835],"class_list":["post-4252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-app-human-interest","tag-app-top-stories","tag-human-interest","tag-josh-rojas","tag-news","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}