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As Gustav grows, flooding fears resurface
Florida Today – August 26, 2008
As another hurricane has the potential to reach Brevard County, those who barely escaped Fay’s floods fear they’re next.
If another storm came, “we’d be in trouble,” said Ralph Beckett, who lives along Lake Poinsett Road near Cocoa.
Coffee-black water from the St. Johns River already swells over the Becketts’ back deck, inches from entering their house.
Tropical Storm Fay raised the river nearly 4 feet. Another several inches, and Lake Poinsett could lap into their kitchen.
And Hurricane Gustav could deliver more unwanted floodwaters to Brevard, where county officials already were keeping close watch Monday on neighborhoods surrounding Lake Poinsett and Lake Washington in Melbourne.
Fay caused an estimated $58 million in property damages in Brevard and $2.6 million in beach erosion. Eight homes were destroyed in Barefoot Bay in Palm Bay and 160 homes severely damaged from flooding countywide. Another 1,500 homes suffered some lesser degree of damage.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has yet to recommend Brevard be designated as disaster area, freeing up federal money for individual assistance to homeowners.
Six people remained sheltered at the Cocoa West Community Center on Burnett Road in West Cocoa on Monday night.
As Gustav gets closer to Florida, regional water managers have been trying to ease down the St. Johns River by allowing about 1 billion gallons a day to pour out Canal 54 west of Fellsmere, which empties into the St. Sebastian River and ultimately the Indian River Lagoon. That’s about 1,500 cubic feet of water per second jetting out the canal.
The canal — known as C-54 — usually is kept closed to prevent fresh water and fertilizers from citrus farms from fouling the Indian River Lagoon. The fresh water releases lower the lagoon’s salt levels, leading to excess algae that can spur seagrass and fish die-offs.
But under Army Corps of Engineers rules, the water management district must open up Canal 54’s control structures when the water level there reaches 25 feet. District officials decided to begin releasing water from the canal on Sunday when its level hit 24.8 feet.
“It was still rising, so we knew it was going to that top that,” said Ed Garland, a water management district spokesman. “The C-54 works almost as a pressure relief.”
The releases are needed to lower water levels in the St. Johns Water Management Area, commonly known as “Stick Marsh,” which have continued to rise as nearby citrus farms pumped out their fields.
“We have a lot of farmers and ag(ricultural) land, where farmers are pumping their groves,” Garland said.
“We’re keeping our eyes on Lake Washington and Lake Poinsett,” said Kimberly Prosser, communications director with Brevard County.
Water management district officials have warned residents along the St. Sebastian River to expect some wet yards during the canal releases, expected to last at least through the week.
Several other spots along the St. Johns have topped previous record water levels this week, rising more than 3 feet in some areas during the past week.
On Monday, the St. Johns nearly reached the 10-foot minimum clearance at the Lone Cabbage Fish Camp off State Road 520 west of Cocoa.
“With this water right now, there’s nowhere it can go,” said John Ramos of West Cocoa. “If we get another storm, even if it’s half of the what Fay was, we’re screwed.”
The St. Johns near Geneva, above Lake Harney, reached 10.65 feet on Monday, nearly 2 feet above flood stage.
Starting in the early-1900s, farmers ditched, drained and diked the St. Johns’ headwaters to expose its rich soils for citrus and row crops and to raise cattle for beefsteak.
After a catastrophic flood in the 1940s, the Upper St. Johns River Basin Project was planned to control flooding on the St. Johns in Brevard, Osceola and Indian River counties.
The C-54, which runs along the Brevard-Indian River county line, was one part of that project.
Officials redesigned the upper basin project in the 1980s to factor in environmental concerns. The newer 20-year, $250 million restoration created more than 20,000 acres of reservoirs to collect nutrient-rich water discharged from the surrounding citrus groves and cattle ranches and restore at least 160,000 acres of marshes in Indian River and Brevard counties. It built a system of levees and water control structures provides flood protection and allows “sheet flow” through the river’s marshes.
Fay and other storms like it should be a lesson to real estate developers, said Leroy Wright, of Cocoa, who has spent 25 years fighting to restore the St. Johns’ headwaters.
“You don’t need to be developing in flood plains. That’s not a good idea,” Wright said. “They know from history that these floods are going to come.”
Prospective homeowners also should heed Fay’s warning, he said.
“So many of them come from the north and have no idea what that river can do,” Wright said.
But Ralph and Kay Beckett, longtime residents of Lake Poinsett Drive, say living along the river is worth the risk. They haven’t seen the St. Johns this high since the 2004 hurricanes.
“It was the longest few days I’ve ever seen,” Kay Beckett said of Fay. “We have been very fortunate. It’s the price you pay for living in a great place.”
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