PENSACOLA, Fla. — A big concern with Debby — and throughout hurricane season — is flooding.
Some residents in Pensacola are concerned areas in the city would see extensive damage, if a storm was to come our way. Now, Mayor D.C. Reeves says it’s time to make improvements before it’s too late.
Charleston County’s Interim Emergency Management Director Ben Webster emphasizes that “the first thing we want to say, is we can’t just say this is just a tropical storm. This is a major catastrophic and historic event for Charleston.”
Historic rainfall is expected for Charleston, S.C. The heaviest rain amounts could even top 30 inches or more, depending on Debby’s speed.
Serious flooding has already hit many people hard.
Charleston resident Curtis Silver recalls the flooding of his own home. “The water wasn’t just coming in through the front door. It was coming up through the floorboards. It was coming in through the walls to the outside.”
And there’s still more rain to come.
If Pensacola were in this situation, there’s a good chance we wouldn’t come out unscathed.
“We all feel the pain of it if it rains hard here for a couple hours. Within the city limits we have streets shut down we’ve got to block off,” Mayor Reeves states. “We’ve got some real things to deal with. I’ve got a list of about $150 million worth of stormwater projects. Our top 10 stormwater projects to fix would be $150 million.”
And that money isn’t in the budget.
According to the mayor on Tuesday, if we don’t do something now, we could regret it later.
“If my other option is to say we’re super susceptible [to] flooding for the next 10 years, that’s a much harder conversation to have with someone whose house has just flooded or that we lose an entire street in Cordova Park again,” Reeves explains.
So, as we watch other areas, grateful it’s not us — it’s a stark reminder that it could be.