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Weathering the waters: Some Bonita Springs residents waiting for floodwaters to recede
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Bonita Springs Flooding: Day 5
Sheetflow flooding continued to rise overnight in east Bonita Springs, but county officials now believe the worst is over. The rising floodwaters encompass neighborhood streets east of Imperial Street, an area that was evacuated of homeowners Tuesday night. No new evacuations have been declared, city officials said Wednesday. Jay Stakenburg, chief of operations at the Lee County Emergency Operations Center, said that after speaking with officials at the National Weather Service, the Southwest Florida Water Management District and the Division of Natural Resources, the county believes flooding has reached its peak. “What they are telling us fairly consistently is that the river and sheetflows are at their highest points now, and that we should begin to get some relief,” he said.
Helping flood victims:
-- The Red Cross is operating a disaster aid station in the parking lot of the Bonita Beach Road Home Depot. The site will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. through Saturday and will provide snacks, lunch and dinner.
-- Sandbags are available at most local fire stations. In Bonita, they are at Station Four, 27701 Bonita Grande Drive.
-- Those with flooded wells should call Environmental Engineering at (239) 274-2200 for information on how to sample water and where to bring a sample for bacteriological testing.
-- The Red Cross shelter at Estero Community Center is requesting donations of long pants, casual working shirts, children’s shoes, socks and underwear, school supplies and diapers. There are more than 50 babies at the shelter.
-- Goods and services for flood victims can be donated through the United Way, at 211. Cash can be donated through the Red Cross, at (239) 278-3401, or through United Way.
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BONITA SPRINGS — Through a window at the front of their Quinn Street rental home, Jennifer Carroll and Jeff Campbell peered into a flooded street Wednesday afternoon.
The couple had been cooped up inside their one-story house since Monday, leaving occasionally to shepherd their brood of Chihuahua puppies across the water and onto a dry patch of land.
The water lapped low at the outside wall of the home, until a passing truck sent a large ripple through.
“It’s been fun yelling at people to slow down,” Carroll said.
“I wish I had a pellet gun,” Campbell joked.
After days of dealing with all of the unwanted water, at least they still had a sense of humor.
On Wednesday, as local officials tried to determine whether floodwaters were rising or falling, a few couples like Carroll, 33, and Campbell, 41, were still sticking out the flood from the frontlines, in eastern Bonita Springs homes that were ordered evacuated on Tuesday.
Eyeing the waterline on a barrel that stuck out of their submerged front yard, the couple said floodwaters had dropped at least an inch since the morning, an observation repeated by several people in flood-afflicted neighborhoods.
But the effect of tides and continued sheetflow remain unclear. The Imperial River crested Tuesday morning, meteorologists said, but floodwaters have only risen since then. Likewise, the National Weather Service extended a flood warning for Bonita Springs until Friday evening.
On Wednesday morning, Jay Stakenburg, chief of operations at the Lee County Emergency Operations Center, said forecasters believe the worst is over.
“What they are telling us fairly consistently is that the river and sheetflows are at their highest points now, and that we should begin to get some relief,” he said.
For Carroll and Campbell, it can’t come soon enough.
“God, I can’t wait to get out of here,” Carroll said.
The floodwaters caught them by surprise. On Monday around 10 a.m., they went to the nearby Walgreen’s to buy a pack of cigarettes. When they returned shortly after, water was flowing into Quinn Street.
“I didn’t even know where the Imperial River was,” Carroll said. “We’ve only been here a month.”
By Tuesday evening, they were being told to leave. The city had issued a mandatory evacuation for Quinn Street, a message Lee County deputies relayed that night by bullhorn, as they rode through the neighborhood on large fire trucks.
Deputies told residents their electricity would be cut, recalled Ken Kessinger, who lives across the street from Carroll and Campbell.
“And, of course, that panicked my neighbors,” he said.
While Kessinger, 63, and his wife, Kim, 51, remained in their stilt home, the neighbors left, one by one, as the water rose.
Kessinger said he called the Bonita Springs fire district to make sure the power wouldn’t be cut. He has a generator, he said, but he knows neighbors who don’t. They have refrigerators stocked with food that could go to waste without power.
“That’s two weeks of paychecks for some of these people,” he said.
The Kessingers say they didn’t like the idea of going to a shelter packed with other people, and they wanted to remain home to protect their property. The house is high enough to avoid floodwaters — it weathered floods in 1992 and 1995 — and neither Ken nor Kim need to leave regularly. Kim works from home, and Ken is retired.
During the 1995 flood, the couple kept a boat tied to a fencepost near the intersection with Bonita Beach Road. This time, they don’t mind slogging on foot to the intersection if they need to get to their cars, parked by the Albertson’s grocery store.
The water isn’t clean, officials said, but the Kessingers aren’t concerned.
“You do this, you go in, take a shower, hose down real good,” Ken Kessinger said. “You try not to be out anymore than you have to.”
As for Carroll and Campbell, the flood is the second natural disaster they’ve weathered this year. Before moving to Bonita Springs, they lived in Golden Gate Estates, where a major fire ripped through homes earlier this summer.
Said Carroll, “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Comments
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Every year this same story is run.
It's getting old!
These people know they live in a vulnerable area.
Why don't they just move?
With the current sub-prime meltdown, there are all sorts of fine houses awaiting them in Cape Coral or Lehigh.
#1 Posted by R_Popoff on August 27, 2008 at 3 p.m. (Suggest removal)
good idea!!! then maybe Bonita will be like she Used to be,,,, :-),,,,,,,, on the other side,,, this is the 1st flood since 1995,,at least that carries this much water, i think there was a small one in ,hmmm 1999?,,,, anyway that was just some run off and no big deal,,,,,, its flooded ever since i can remember , where i am, its a part of life that i accept,,,the only Real problem,is the time frame that they are lasting ,, theres simply to much development,without proper planning,,,,,,
#2 Posted by Bullbat on August 27, 2008 at 3:53 p.m. (Suggest removal)
It is probably a big deal to the families that have been evacuated.
I talked to a framer yesterday at Worthington Country club. He said he lives East of old 41 in downtown Bonita and he has standing water in his house.
That doesn't sound good.
#3 Posted by silverback on August 27, 2008 at 4:38 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Unplug your ears!
Get off your duff!
Mother nature is telling you, it's time to relocate.
Remember what happened to Atlantis!
#4 Posted by R_Popoff on August 27, 2008 at 5:13 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Relocate great idea. But where?
California fires earthquakes
Texas hurricanes, tornadoes, fire, flood etc
Kansas, tornadoes
Missouri. tornadoes floods
Washington, Oregon, earthquakes, volcanoes
North and South Carolina, hurricanes, floods
Hmm where to go.
Now that I think about it, the only place I can't recall a natural disaster is Maine. It might be a little crowded with 300 million people packing in.
#5 Posted by swampbuggy on August 27, 2008 at 5:43 p.m. (Suggest removal)
With the current sub-prime meltdown, there are all sorts of solid if shabby houses awaiting them in downscale areas like Cape Coral, San Carlos, or Lehigh.
North of BB road is a dump anyway.
Relocate!
#6 Posted by R_Popoff on August 27, 2008 at 5:47 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Post #1."These people know they live in a vulnerable area.
Why don't they just move?" Maybe some of us like it here just the way it is. It's been pretty much like this off and on since we moved here some 48 years ago. This cycle will repeat itself in the years to come and we expect it. This is the REAL Florida, Swamp Style.......:).
#7 Posted by ravenhawk on August 27, 2008 at 5:51 p.m. (Suggest removal)
"the Southwest Florida Water Management District?"
Why are they involved when it is not even in their jurisdiction?
#8 Posted by swampbuggy on August 27, 2008 at 6:24 p.m. (Suggest removal)
"Maybe some of us like it here just the way it is. It's been pretty much like this off and on since we moved here some 48 years ago. This cycle will repeat itself in the years to come and we expect it. This is the REAL Florida, Swamp Style.......:)."
Great!
You should live wherever you want.
But why then do I have to listen to this same tale of water woe every year?
#9 Posted by R_Popoff on August 27, 2008 at 6:57 p.m. (Suggest removal)
"But why then do I have to listen to this same tale of water woe every year?"
Just the pure and simple facts of life, Popoff. Actually you don't have to listen to it every year, just watch cartoons or something more uplifting if you wish. The fact of the matter is that the Imperial River Basin which flows from the Lake Trafford area to the Gulf of Mexico goes right smack dab through Bonita Springs. Some years, not all mind you, are wetter than others and this is one of those wet years. Look at it as an Adventure.........:). I take it that you have not experienced on of our Florida specialties ( Hurricanes ) yet. Just stick around my friend, there is lots of excitement yet in store for all this year.
#10 Posted by ravenhawk on August 27, 2008 at 7:28 p.m. (Suggest removal)
swampbuggy:
Another place that comes to mind to relocate where very little of ANYTHING happens<GG>:
The North Georgia Mountains, i.e. Blue Ridge, Blairsville. Know quite a few from Naples that are relocating up to the area or have a second home, cabin, also.
#11 Posted by coonslady on August 28, 2008 at 12:48 a.m. (Suggest removal)
How ironic that the only two sane people replying in this blog have the word swamp in their name
#12 Posted by myrealname on August 28, 2008 at 5:58 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Were any of you bums at yesterdays Bonita Planning session??? At that meeting, they voted for more deveopment/greater density east of rt 75. You know, opening the DR/GR area.
One big, fat, moist goober spat in the faces of those flooded folks...and Bonitans sick of residential/commercial sprawl and over development.
#13 Posted by BonitaSprings1 on August 28, 2008 at 8:28 a.m. (Suggest removal)
cutandrunLiberal,
Based on your schmucky reply, I take it you didn't make the meeting?
#14 Posted by BonitaSprings1 on August 28, 2008 at 9:33 a.m. (Suggest removal)
swampbuggy,
Maine; northeasters and blizzards.
#15 Posted by Illiar on August 28, 2008 at 9:34 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Illiar, blizzards in Maine are like afternoon thunderstorms here.
#16 Posted by swampbuggy on August 28, 2008 at 10:39 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Leave the poor people alone...if they want to live there...then..sucks for them !!! but there is no need to tell them where to live and not try to help!...but yeah...helping each other is not an option anymore but criticizing each other is !!!!
#17 Posted by PPC on August 28, 2008 at 11:18 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Sticking to the story....they were ordered to evacuate and they didn't. They have a sense of humor. Why all of the negative comments?
#18 Posted by eaglebeak on August 28, 2008 at 11:21 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Lee County doesn't have the brains that Collier County has. If you live where it floods move.
I lived in New Orleans for 12 years and have been living in Naples for 20 years. I moved from New Orleans because it flooded every 3 years. At some pint, people have to use their brain and move. The drainage in Lee County Sucks. What is so difficult to understand!!!
#19 Posted by nightranger on August 28, 2008 at 8:14 p.m. (Suggest removal)
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