MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. — Many residents in Manatee County are feeling defeated and tired from the continuous flooding that has been ongoing since Hurricane Debby.

After a county commission meeting Tuesday, they say they are still looking for answers.

“Do something to move the water out. Because we have had five floods from five regular 45-minute rainstorms in the past ten days,” said Barbara Ficklin, who spoke in front of commissioners.

Although commissioners did not comment, the county’s Natural Resources Director, Charlie Hunsicker, addressed the public regarding the Lake Manatee Dam.

“My answer to all this is 17 inches of rain. I don’t mean to downplay the anger and suspicion that the Manatee River somehow created a backwater effect on the Braden River, but it’s absolutely untrue—it did not,” he said.

According to county commissioners, so many residents have reached out wanting answers about flooding issues that commissioners are reconsidering turning public commenting back on for social media posts.

“We obviously need to fix how we are communicating, especially during storm season, which is what made this time sensitive there maybe better solutions, but right now there’s not,” said commissioner George Kruse. “People look at Facebook, Twitter, TikTok to interact there was a lot of issues with the dam, the flood, people couldn’t get answers.”

However, commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge disagrees.

“On this one, I’m not going to jump on board with you. The social media platforms are a way for the county to disseminate information to citizens, but it is not meant as a platform for feedback, dialogue and at times, debate,” he said.

Dalton and Sierra Nelson live near Jim Davis Road in Parrish. They say their property flooded during Debby and several times since then due to rainfall, where they had to evacuate their animals and horses.

“There’s definitely a lot of information that’s being hidden as far as what the situation is on the ground,” said Dalton.

Residents are requesting that county officials come out to their properties to see the flooding in person.

“We lost a small lawn tractor that’s like $20,000 to replace in the current market,” said Dalton, “And we lost a lot of tack, a lot of feed—you know, feed is $27 a bag for us. So when you do the math, the two bags... we lost all of our hay. We had just bought hay that was in the barn.”

Manatee County commissioners will decide whether the social media commenting should be turned on at the next meeting.

It’s scheduled for Sept. 10 at 9 a.m. at the Manatee County Administration Building.