The other day I drove over to Hyline Drive in Jensen Beach, Florida, which recently suffered historic flooding, to survey the damage. Parts of this neighborhood were still 5 feet under water 9 days after the rains had stopped, as seen in the photograph above. Many homes have 3 to 6 inches of sewage water inside, and affected residents are unable to move cars, take showers, or flush toilets. Martin County has reported 66 homes have been damaged, 25 of which have been destroyed. The flooding has also damaged homes in Port St. Lucie, just to the north of Jensen Beach, West Palm Beach, and Riviera Beach. The severity of the rainfall caught everyone off-guard, and it appears the flooding in Jensen Beach is believed to have been caused by the city of Port St. Lucie pumping floodwaters into the Savannah Preserve, a neighboring state park, which then flowed south into Jensen Beach. District commissioners admit that better coordination is needed between these individual jurisdictions to stop incidents like this from occurring in the future. The saddest thing of all is that many homeowners do not have flood insurance, and those that do say their insurance will cover only part of the damage. An unexpected life-changing event for these residents. And with climate change continuing to cause extreme weather, how many of these types of occurrences can we expect in the future? God only knows.
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