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Predominantly Black Neighborhoods Had Little Damage During 20-Day Storms
This is the rainy season in Florida, so it’s not unusual to get a lot of rain covering the entire state. However, what is unusual is for the Tampa Bay area to experience 20 straight days of heavy rain.
Homeowners weren’t ex- pecting this kind of downpour, and some roadways had to be closed due to the high water.
African Americans com- munities in Carver City/Lin- coln Gardens, West Tampa, and East Tampa managed pretty good and didn’t experi- ence any long range flooding.
Maurice Harvey, Presi- dent of the Carver City/Lin- coln Gardens Civic Association, said it was a blessing to get the rain, but not necessarily in that abun- dance.
“Thanks to our recently repaved roads and the city cleaning our ditches, we didn’t have a big problem. One area that consistently floods is Grady in the Lincoln Gardens area.
“Along Spruce Street, they have a big ditch, and for the first time it overflowed. There were also some residents who had sewage overflow prob- lems, and their front yards were flooded. Only one resi- dent actually had water enter their home.”
Harvey said the residents called the city, and they sent a team out immediately to as- sess any damage and check the roadways for safety.
West Riverfront Neighbor- hood Association and Crime Watch President, Mrs. Ruth McNair said their streets did hold a lot of water, but none of it entered homes in the area.
“Our streets have always drained pretty well. There are a few areas along Cypress and Willow Avenue where the water pools up, but it doesn’t stay that way long.
“One thing is obvious, and that is the need for a better drainage system. We all got letters from the city telling us our stormwater fees were going to increase, and we hope that means the flooding prob- lems will be taken care of.”
Mrs. McNair said there aren’t a lot of retention ponds in her community, and it’s not something they discuss during their meetings.
“I think the ones they do have need to be kept clean. They just opened one along the northern side of I-4 be- tween Willow and North Boulevard.
“I think they are going to install more water pumps to handle the volume of water that collects.”
Mrs. McNair said flood- ing has an adverse impact be- cause people can’t make it to doctors appointments because the roadways are flooded.
“Because Swann was flooded, a lot of people couldn’t go for their treat- ments or examinations. That has to be taken care of and we consider that a serious prob- lem.”
East Tampa Community Revitalization Partnership Chair Essie Sims said an area along Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. east of 40th Street is still a problem area.
“The area around the Gar- den of Memories Cemetery floods dramatically, and makes the roadways impassa-
An elderly woman had to be rescued from this vehicle on East Wilder.
ble.
“It should also be men-
tioned that although the city spent millions on the south corner of 30th Street and Hills- borough Avenue, nothing has changed with the flooding problem.
In North Tampa Heights, north of Columbus Drive, flooded streets are in abun- dance, and a lot of the vacant lots in the area hold water after a strong storm.
This is what the area of 30th Street and Hillsborough looked like after last week’s rainstorm.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 14, 2015 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 9-A