JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – San Marco is one of Jacksonville’s low-lying areas, but the amount of flooding seen this week has surprised residents, business owners and the councilman who represents the area.
The neighborhood, which is along the Southbank of the St. Johns River, often experiences flooding during tropical storms and hurricanes. But, a series of heavy downpours proved too much for the area’s drainage system this week and caused flooding that’s worse than many can remember outside of a tropical system.
News4JAX spotted seven cars abandoned in the middle of two San Marco streets on Friday morning after a second day of flooding on Thursday made the roads impassable. Three of the cars were on Nira Street and four were on San Marco Boulevard.
VIDEO | Cars stranded, trash can floats down road amid widespread flooding in San Marco
City Councilman Joe Carlucci, who represents the San Marco area, has been sounding off on social media about the issues.
Just after 10 p.m. Thursday, he posted to X that he had a call set for Friday morning with the director of the city’s Public Works Department.
“This is ridiculous and I’m trying to get as much help as soon as possible,” Carlucci wrote. “Hang in there folks.”
News4JAX spoke with Carlucci on Friday after his meeting with the department.
“The answer is there’s been, the system is capable of only handling so much,” Carlucci said. “So, what we are asking them to do is to make sure any reported clogs, we get those taken out, any filters in these pumps, we are constantly removing those.”
To help alleviate some of the flooding in the area, crews added four temporary pumps.
Chance Usina said for him and his neighbors, a fix for the flooding is long overdue.
“I’m just worried for the sake of other people because this is something, this has been a project that they have been [the city] ongoing on with for a long time now, should be completing as fast as they can,” Usina said.
Usina was home as his neighborhood flooded on Thursday.
“It went up to about our second step on our front porch,” Usina said. “It was absolutely insane driving through. I drove through at least a foot of water. Luckily, of course, I drive the Ford F-150 so I can go through and not worry as much even though it was heart-wrenching.”
Pump system
Construction of a new pump station at LaSalle Street pump station is currently underway. The construction work began in May 2023.
Carlucci said two other pump stations in San Marco are located by Landon Park and on Children’s Way, near Nemours.
RELATED | The new LaSalle Street pump station is expected to ease San Marco’s longtime flooding issues
Portable pumps were brought into LaSalle Street on Wednesday, but the flooding remained widespread.
According to the city, the new pump station will discharge stormwater to the St. Johns River and handle an increase in stormwater capacity. Other improvements include grading that the city says will quickly drain stormwater from roads into the collection system and the installation of larger pipes, which will speed up water flow.
The city says the newly installed pump station at LaSalle Street is expected to be operational in the first quarter of 2025.
A city spokesperson provided the following statement on the project:
“Construction on the first phase of the City of Jacksonville’s LaSalle Street Drainage Improvement Project began on LaSalle Street in 2023 and is on schedule, with the newly installed pump station expected to be operational in Q1 2025. Additional drainage improvements on LaSalle Street are ongoing and include a newly constructed outfall and the installation of new drainage pipes and inlets. Once complete and operational, drainage on LaSalle Street will improve. Subsequent phases of the project include the installation of new pipes and inlets on roadways in the LaSalle Street neighborhood. Once completed, the new drainage system will further mitigate flooding in the area.”
City officials also told News4JAX that crews will continue to visit affected areas in the coming days to investigate the stormwater collection system.
Many areas of town experienced flooding yesterday after a severe storm dumped as much as six inches of rainfall in some areas in under two hours.
Even with stormwater systems temporarily being overtaxed by the very heavy rains, crews were out working to verify that systems were open and unblocked to handle as much flow as possible. Shortly after the heaviest of the rainfall ceased, stormwater systems began to recover and flooded areas drained.
Over the next several days, crews will continue to visit areas that experienced flooding to investigate the stormwater systems and take action as necessary to ensure they are open to receive stormwater runoff and drain these areas during regular rainfall events.
Meanwhile, as the climate continues to heat up, it becomes ever more important for the City of Jacksonville to build on our landmark resilience strategy helping us to adapt and prepare for severe weather events and other stressors related to climate change.
Melissa Ross, COJ
Meanwhile, JEA encouraged homeowners to make sure their trees are in good shape.
“JEA crews work throughout the year, on tree trimming throughout the region ensuring that trees have a good clearing of our lines, but this is a time when we encourage homeowners to make sure their trees are healthy,” Karen McAllister, JEA spokesperson, said.
As multiple counties remain under a Flood Watch until Saturday morning, Carlucci also wanted to remind residents to be cautious.
“If you saw flooding yesterday, just get prepared, do sandbags. Do whatever measures you think are necessary for your house and your business to just block some of that water,” Carlucci said.
Carlucci also told News4JAX that once the city gets past this current rain event, he plans to look at the existing system again and the interim temporary pump station to see what worked best. From there, he will create a revised response plan to keep his district better prepared for the next event.