Flooding

The American Red Cross has sent a legion of volunteers and vehicles to flooded Louisiana, for what the organization calls the worst natural disaster in the U.S. since 2012’s SuperStorm Sandy.  

“All across south Louisiana, and it has presented tremendous challenges to everyone. But I’m very proud of the effort that we’re making,” said Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards after a helicopter tour of the hardest-hit areas. 

Operation Photo Rescue is saving memories, one disaster at a time. And, the organization is now considering whether to come to the Pensacola area in the wake of the extensive damage from the local flooding event in April.

When it comes to shaping cities and neighborhoods, since the late 1940s, urban developers have catered developments to the invention and expansion of the automobile. Cars allowed people to spread out more and paved the way for urban sprawl. This concept of spreading everything out, in turn can result in “pressure that pushes us into more marginal areas for development than we would otherwise.” That’s according to Christian Wagley, a local environmental advocate and green building consultant. What happens when development occurs in those “more marginal areas”?

Representatives from the Florida State Emergency Response Team conducted a meeting Tuesday for public assistance applicants where SERT and FEMA reps outlined the available assistance and the eligibility standards.

Steve Hyatt, the Public Assistance Officer for the Florida Division of Emergency Management’s Bureau of Recovery, spoke at the Escambia County Emergency Operations Center. There to listen were people representing the local governments and various non-profits that took hits in last month’s storms and flooding.

Dump trucks are making regular trips to and from landfills in Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties, discarding massive amounts of storm-related debris collected from area residences.

Emerald Coast Utilities Authority has about 20 crews out picking up the storm debris. As the flood waters in many areas began to recede, ECUA began their work on May 4 in the Bristol Park subdivision.

Some local nonprofit organizations suffered losses during the recent storm and flooding. Among those is Open Books, a nonprofit bookstore and home to the prison books project. Steven Kell is a volunteer at Open Books who has been involved with the cleanup since last Wednesday.

Watching last week’s great flood from out of town was unsettling. We had been in Pittsburg for a nephew’s college graduation, and on that Tuesday night found ourselves on a plane circling Pensacola.

The pilot said heavy rain over the airport was delaying our arrival, but don’t worry, we have plenty of fuel. 20 minutes later he said there was still a nasty storm cell over the airport and he was waiting for it to move.

Santa Rosa County

Damage assessments from last week’s storms continue to roll in. Looking at private property, Escambia is now reporting more than 3,200 homes damaged, with 13 destroyed; 117 businesses were damaged. Okaloosa is reporting a $3.3 million in damage to at least 285 homes. For more on Santa Rosa County, WUWF’s Sandra Averhart spoke to Property Appraiser Greg Brown.

Local officials are trying to get ahead of a potential boom of mosquitoes in the next week or so.

In this week's Economic Report, Dr. Rick Harper discusses the recent flood event and the expected high cost of repairing the damage to roads, infrastructure and other government and private property, likely in the hundreds of millions of dollars in each case.

The unexpectedly large volume of rainfall, up to 27 inches in some areas, brought floodwaters to some areas that had never flooded before. That means many homeowners will be forced to foot the bill for repairs themselves. 

After Tuesday night’s deluge, local government officials, business owners, and residents across the region had little rain to deal with as they began to pick up the pieces from this week’s floods.

As much as 27 inches were recorded in some areas over a 30 hour period.

The floodwaters left some residents stranded. While many were pulled to safety on Wednesday, with equipment and assistance from the state, a final round of checks was underway on Thursday.

Daniel Hahn, Emergency Management Plans Chief for Santa Rosa County.

One of the biggest losses from this week's storm was Manna Food Pantries, who's office and warehouse in Pensacola were just about a total loss.  WUWF's Bob Barrett toured the damage at the Manna complex on Gonzalez Street and spoke about what it means for the future of Manna with Executive Director Dee Dee Flounlacker, who said they have lost "approximately 60 to 75 percent of our food".

On Manna's food storage:

The office and warehouse on Gonzalez street in Pensacola is the only place Manna stores their food. The only food still usable was stored on the higher shelves.

There are closed roads and flooded homes in the City of Gulf Breeze which was hit hard by the storm. City Manager Buz Eddy said the amount of rain, 17 inches in 24 hours is something he's never seen before in the city. And that comes "on the heels of 40 inches of rain since January first. So the water table is very, very high."