ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – One after another, residents frustrated over flooding in St. Augustine gave members of the City Commission an earful Monday night.
Torrential floodwaters, like what were seen Sunday in parts of the city after a round of downpours, has residents like Brittany Vidal asking the committee to address the issue.
“My home flooded during Matthew, Irma, Dorian, a nor’easter and now heavy rain,” Vidal said.
She and Stan Selecky, the owner of Castagna Auto Sales, were among several people who spoke out during the meeting.
“Our business been established on the same corner of US-1 and (State Road) 207 the last 27 years, and we were having this issue before but not as often as now,” Selecky said.
On Sunday, Selecky’s car lot was submerged after heavy rains.
As committee members listened to the issues virtually, St. Augustine’s Public Works department responded, saying that it has been working on the problem long before this recent flooding.
“Right now we have about 22 million dollars in projects. That includes design and construction dollars dedicated toward flood and mitigation,” said Reuben Franklin, director of Public Works.
The latest project in the works is designing a 7-foot bulkhead with a pumping station on the south end of Lake Maria Sanchez.
“Once this project is implemented, it will give us protection up to that 7-foot elevation,” Franklin said.