Despite improvements, flooding remains major concern in Edgewood neighborhood
MIAMI - When rain starts falling over the Edgewood neighborhood of Fort Lauderdale, many think of just one thing.
"I think of flooding," said Anna Rysedorph.
During last April's flood, her home was underwater.
"The house flooded, three feet and everything was gone. A few pictures, pretty much everything," she said.
She's keeping her eye on the sky for now.
"When it's raining like this and it's constant and you know the ground is saturated and there's nowhere else for the water to go other than your house, I think the whole neighborhood still thinks this way," she said.
Alan Dodd is Fort Lauderdale's Director of Public Works, "We spent 14 million dollars in this neighborhood putting in catch basins, pipes in the ground and a drainage system," he said.
The city just finished a drainage project here laying 5 and a half miles of pipe.
"It's a big collection system with a series of pipes, and catch basins that will move the water," he said. Pointing into a storm drain he said, "You can see how much water it's already capturing in the pipes down below."
That rainwater will make its way to a stormwater reserve and then be pumped into the New River.
"When the system is operating it Should be able to handle about 7 and a half inches of rain over a 24-hour period," he said.
"I have no confidence. I think it will happen again," Rysedorph worried.
Dodd tried to reassure homeowners. He said, "People are nervous, especially after the April rain event we had. We have state-of-the-art brand new infrastructure that is going to be able to protect them better than we have ever been able to in the past."
