Frustration is growing among residents in one Seminole County neighborhood near the Port of Sanford, where the swollen St. Johns River continues to flood streets and could continue to rise before it recedes.
- Flood waters part of St. Johns River
- County officials say there's nothing they can do
- Flood waters upstream from area still have to drain
For more than a month, the only way Kathy Brown has been able to get to her home is by walking through her neighbor’s yards. Her street is under one to two feet of water.
“We had [Tropical Storm] Fay which flooded out here, [Hurricane] Matthew we had, but they were gone in a few weeks,” said Brown. “It’s been 30 days and it’s gone down about an inch.”
Brown says a trapper had to remove a seven-foot alligator that took up residency in her yard.
“He kind of liked it here instead of out in the water,” said Brown.
Luckily the water hasn’t reached her home. But it took over her street right after Irma and shows no signs of giving it back.
Brown says she’s reached out to Seminole County officials to see if they could do more to help ease the street flooding, but she says she hasn’t gotten much of a response.
“It would be nice to see if we could have some kind of dialogue with the county to see what we could have done,” said Brown.
We reached out to Seminole County’s emergency manager, who said the flood water is actually part of the St. Johns River – and there’s nothing the county can do about it.
Brown’s frustrations continue to grow the longer the flooding goes on.
“The garbage can’t get picked up, nobody can get down here to do any work from the hurricane,” said Brown.
Brown says her neighbors are ok with her trouncing through their yards in her rain boots. Her neighbors with trucks are also helping get her garbage down the street to where it can be picked up.
“You get to know your neighbors this way,” said Brown. “There’s always some good with the bad.”
Unfortunately the outlook for Brown’s neighborhood is not good. Seminole County emergency management officials said water in the area is expected to go higher before it eventually recedes, because flood water upstream still has to flow through the area.