Six More Weeks of Florida Hurricane Flooding -- New 'Oceanfront' Property Happens.
From: Psalm 110 (Gods_Fist_at_sbcglobal.net)
Date: 09/28/04
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Date: 27 Sep 2004 20:08:51 -0700
Six More Weeks of Florida Hurricane Flooding -- New 'Oceanfront'
Property Happens.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55281-2004Sep27.html
As Jeanne Leaves, Florida Fears Massive Flooding
Low-Lying Areas Are Vulnerable After Four Hurricanes
By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 28, 2004; Page A03
KISSIMMEE, Fla., Sept. 27 -- Hurricane Jeanne's rains dumped about 166
billion gallons of water on three counties in central Florida, and as
far as Anna Marie Amidon, 81, was concerned on Monday, it might have
all fallen directly on her.
The Sunshine State is now the Saturated Sponge State. Three previous
hurricanes in the past six weeks left Florida so soggy that reservoirs
cannot absorb more water. Officials predicted that much of the
drenching Jeanne delivered will probably drain into places such as
Kissimmee, especially into low-lying areas such as the Good Samaritan
retirement complex, where Amidon lives.
The fourth hurricane to pummel the state this year, Jeanne was
downgraded Monday to a tropical depression, spreading rain in Georgia
as it headed for the Carolinas. President Bush declared 26 Florida
counties disaster areas; about 2.5 million people were still without
electricity.
People began lining up for food and water, and clearing debris from
ravaged homes.
For Amidon and the 1,500 residents of Good Samaritan, however, a new
nightmare is about to begin. Enough water to fill about 11 million
family-size swimming pools is headed their way.
Serene but implacable, the water has begun to rise at Good Samaritan.
Near Scotland Road, where Amidon lives, only about six inches of the
top of an orange traffic cone was visible Monday afternoon. Palm trees
appeared to be growing out of lakes. Dislodged debris from previous
storms floated down streets. Pickup trucks left wakes like speedboats.
Eddies and currents formed around islands of lawn. Birds with delicate
legs prowled the water's edge, looking for lunch.
Officials predicted that the retirees at the complex would have to be
evacuated -- again. Rising waters after Hurricane Frances prompted a
mass evacuation, including all the people in the nursing home. It took
hours to move the patients with oxygen masks. Now, everyone will
probably have to leave once more.
"We don't want panic, but we want people to be realistic," said Bill
Graf of the South Florida Water Management District, the agency
responsible for flood control. "Even though it's blue skies out there,
the water will continue to rise."
Elsewhere in the state, hour-long traffic jams formed on the fringes
of coastal towns as residents streamed back into low-lying areas they
fled in advance of Jeanne. Once-beautiful yachts, now the stuff of
insurance investigators and salvage men, lay half-submerged in the
swollen St. Lucie River. Residents cooked meals on camping stoves next
to smashed cars.
"Six weeks ago, it was paradise," said Armand Pasquale, 64, who owns a
25-unit apartment building in Stuart.
The National Hurricane Center projected that the storm would cross
North Carolina and the southeast tip of Virginia late Tuesday before
slipping into the Atlantic early Wednesday. Jeanne has slowed, but
could speed up as she curves northeast.
Florida Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings (R) arrived at Osceola County to say
the state felt the pain of Amidon and other residents. But the
flooding problem is not restricted to this area, and the situation
might be worse in the north.
"I hear flooding has been a problem in this area and will continue to
be," Jennings said. In Seminole County to the north, she said that
lakes and ponds were overflowing and flooding towns. "Lake Monroe has
decided to keep flowing through Sanford," she said.
Osceola County Chairman Ken Shipley spoke bluntly to Jennings: "The
only thing I can suggest is keep the pocketbook open. Send cash."
But the real problem isn't financial, it's hydraulic. Many of
Florida's lakes are already a foot or so above safe levels. Jeanne
could add 18 more inches to that, and make flooding a major problem in
such places as Kissimmee. Officials are pushing the drainage system to
the max, but it could take more than three weeks to get rid of that
much water.
The flood control system was designed for the kind of worst-case
scenario that came around once every 25 years, Graf said. The combined
effect of hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne was the kind of
worst-case scenario that came around every 200 years.
Predicting water flows after a hurricane can be complicated, but after
three hurricanes, the calculation becomes simple. If the state were a
sponge, it is now soaked, and new water has to be drained or will end
up in people's living rooms or in city streets.
Using a 15-by-30-foot family swimming pool as a measuring tool, Graf
said the state's flood control system was emptying the basin of three
central Florida counties at a rate of five swimming pools per second
into the Kissimmee River. But even at that phenomenal pace, draining
the equivalent of 11 million swimming pools -- six inches of rain over
1,600 square miles -- would take more than three weeks.
In the meantime, the waters will keep rising, and probably crest after
a week, officials predicted. County officials said that an evacuation
of residents at Good Samaritan is all but inevitable.
Graf said the community was designed before new flood-control plans
had been developed, and was constructed at a lower elevation than
would be permitted now. Of special worry, he said, is that many of its
utilities are delivered through underground cables that do not take
kindly to submersion.
In an interview at Good Samaritan's community center, Amidon said that
Hurricane Frances had pushed water into her mobile home's sun room.
Amidon was not around when Frances struck; some residents at Good
Samaritan live here only part of the year.
"When I came back, I could see how high the water was in my [sun] room
because of the mud," she said. "I have lost my sleeper sofa-bed, my
overstuffed chair, a side table, a tea table, and the rug is gone."
Amidon's daughter and son-in-law had recently arranged to buy the
mobile home for her but did not get it insured, she said. "I thought
my daughter bought the insurance," she said. "Each one thought the
other had signed the papers and sent them in."
Betty Dubberly, 67, another resident, spoke up: "Everyone's spirit is
down, but would they move? No. This is home." Amidon agreed.
"We have lakefront property, don't we?" Dubberly joked.
"It's all water," Amidon corrected. "I have oceanfront property."
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