PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — The Riviera Bay neighborhood in St. Pete has been experiencing flooding for years and has been pleading with the City of St. Pete for help.
Now, the Army Corps of Engineers is partnering with city leaders to mitigate flooding.
"It's very concerning," said Peter Nolan.
Nolan lives in the Riviera Bay neighborhood, and he said a canal near his home floods easily.
"I don't recall this particular road flooding when we moved in roughly ten years ago," Nolan said. "We started having water backing up through the storm system through high tide or excessive rain."
He is one of many neighbors that said the flooding is now becoming more of an issue.
"It's impacting peoples ability to get into their own driveway," said Nolan.
Vanessa Pugliese is the President of the Riviera Bay Neighborhood Association, and she said the drainage canals in the neighborhood have filled up with so much sand and sediment of the years that they no longer hold as much water, causing them to flood and water to fill the streets.
Homeowners said so much sand has filled the canal on 85th Avenue North to the point where it is now missing about eight feet of depth.
"You used to be able to bring a very deep draft boat here, and now you can barely bring a kayak through because the depths are so low. And that means there's nowhere for water if its full of sand," Pugliese explained.
Nolan said the seawall is also damaged with cracks and holes allowing more water to leak through when water rises.
The City of St. Pete recently requested to work with the Army Corps of Engineers to help with the problem. The request was approved, and now a study will be conducted to identify what canals should be dredged and how to mitigate flooding.
"Residents here know that until this is addressed," Pugliese said. "We don't just have to worry about hurricanes, we have to worry about if the tide is high and if its raining, just regular Florida rains flood the streets."
Nolan hopes some sort of dredging is completed before the next big storm.
"For me, the concern is how long is it going to take for the studies to take place and actual action taken on those studies," Nolan said.
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