ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — After rounds of storms have put a handful of different St. Pete neighborhoods under water, Mayor Ken Welch, along with key staff members from local, state and federal agencies are meeting with residents Tuesday night to discuss concerns and possible solutions.
The Resilience Community Listening Session will be held Tuesday from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Johns Hopkins All Children’s Research and Education Building auditorium located at 600 5th St. S. in St. Petersburg.
What You Need To Know
- Mayor Ken Welch along with key staff members from local, state and federal agencies are meeting with residents Tuesday night to discuss flooding concerns and possible solutions
- Shore Acres, Snell Isle, Coquina Key, Riviera Bay, Tropical Shores, Maggiore, Bartlett Park, Harbordale and Yacht Club Estates are among neighborhoods impacted
- To register for meeting: Stpete.org/resilience
Those who wish to attend are asked to register ahead of time. The event is open to all St. Pete residents with flooding concerns.
The city says key neighborhoods the discussion will focus on include Shore Acres, Snell Isle, Coquina Key, Riviera Bay, Tropical Shores, Maggiore, Bartlett Park, Harbordale and Yacht Club Estates.
In Shore Acres, some residents have had their homes flooded more than once over the last year.
Eileen Blackmer had inches of water in her home during Hurricane Idalia, and after making repairs, a no-name storm in December flooded it once again. She says she’s lived in Shore Acres all of her life and the areas that flooded 50 years ago are the same ones that do now.
Late last month, the city announced plans to spend $500,000 this year to replace 14 of the areas 56 old model backflow preventers.
Blackmer says it’s not just days with a lot of rain they see flooding, but it’s often seawater that floods the streets. She feels cleaning storm pipes and replacing backflow preventers is a temporary solution that’s been tried before.
She’s hoping long-term solutions will be discussed at Tuesday’s meeting.
“I’m being optimistic that they will, but I’m not counting on it. I’ve been to these things for years and what I’ve found is 70-80% of the time they already know what they’re going to do,” she said. “It’s just a song and dance for us.”
Blackmer feels mitigating homes is the only answer, and past efforts to drain or reroute the water have been futile.
“They have to rebuild or raise these homes,” she said. “What they’ve been doing isn’t working.”
Residents are asked to submit their questions online ahead of Tuesday night’s meeting.