Severe weather on Tuesday created serious problems for drivers on Interstate 4 because of washouts and flooding.

  • Parts of I-4 flooded during storms Tuesday
  • Worst areas were east of downtown
  • Contractor: flooding caused by inlets blocked by debris
  • Drivers say problems common during storms

“The storms were terrible today, it was a gullywasher,” said Bobby Hewitt, drives on I-4 daily.

The worst areas were in the middle of I-4 near both the Princeton and Fairbanks exits. Pooling water slowed traffic to a crawl and made it extremely tough for cars to cross.

“I was getting off of Princeton right here, and the water was actually in the middle of the whole road," said Antoine Ceus, who uses I-4 daily. "As soon as I got off of Princeton, I pulled over to the side, like, where they are actually doing the construction, and that’s where I had to wait for the rain to rescind."

Ceus and other drivers said these problems on I-4 are common when it storms.

“There are puddles, there are crazy drivers, you are fearing for your life a little bit,” Hewitt said.

“I almost got flooded," Ceus added. "My car was stalled out because when you get off there, there are piles of sand and there is also mud, so when I had to pull over to wait for the rain to rescind before I started driving."

FDOT declined an in-person interview. However, a contractor responded to the area shortly after the flooding and explained the issue was caused by inlets that were blocked by debris.

Contractors cleared the inlets and then monitored those sections of road for the remainder of the night.

Drivers still feel like more needs to be done though to fix the problems.

“I think they need to just patch up the road, because there has been construction supposedly for seven months, eight months, or probably more than that, and they are supposed to be preparing the road,” Ceus said.