King Tides Frustrating Ft Lauderdale Residents
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FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) -- With water several inches deep in parts of Ft. Lauderdale, drivers are being warned to proceed with caution.
"This road will be completely unusable," said Jason Dunbar as he took a nightly stroll with his kids through a Ft. Lauderdale neighborhood that surrounds the Atlantic Ocean, the intracoastal and many canals.
For several days this time of year, king tides flood Cordova Road, just south of Las Olas, with salt water. Also inundated are Cordova's feeder streets and the homes lining them.
"But it's kind of amazing," Dunbar said, pointing out the a noticeable difference in water levels as the streets ascend slightly. "You can see the difference in elevation just around the corner there. That road goes up probably 30 feet and that makes a significant difference for the people on the lowland."
Along the roads, 'No Wake Zone' signs remind drivers to go slow.
"Everything from the intracoastal comes up into the yard," said Todd Byers, who's lived on Cordova Road for 25 years, with the intracoastal waterway as his backyard.
The king tides have flooded beyond his dock, almost halfway up to his back door, leaving debris from garbage to debris everywhere.
"The grass will be dead within about two weeks," he said disappointingly. "All the yard will be dead where the salt water is."
Since moving to the area in 1991, the periodic-yet-predictable high tides have definitely worsened.
"When I first used to live here, the tide used to come up just to the top of the seawall. Now it comes up to where you see it," Byers said. "There's probably a good foot difference from what it used to be."
Byers blames global warming.