Photo courtesy of the Town of Kenneth City
During the Aug. 14 Kenneth City Town Council meeting, Mayor Megan Zemaitis and Council listened to the public address their experiences with Tropical Storm Debby in Kenneth City.
Tropical Storm Debby in Kenneth City
Following the stormy days, Kenneth City received more than nine inches of rain over 24 hours.
Engineer Justin Keller explained that the town’s stormwater infrastructure experienced issues with the heavy rainfall which led to inundations.
“When you have an infrastructure system, what you do is you have predictive and repeatable maintenance activities, Keller said. “But, sometimes, Mother Nature doesn’t play nice.”
Tropical Storm Debby in Kenneth City is not all that happened at the Aug. 14 Town Council meeting. Read about pickleball and Town budget updates.
Damages and Floods
While structural damage was minimal, residents experienced floods.
“We need to look at the county about Joe’s Creek,” resident Chuck Hite said.
Hite noted that there’s a need to understand when the county did the last maintenance operation.
Read about the aftermath of Tropical Storm Debby in Gulfport.
“It doesn’t take a tropical storm… sometimes it could be a 30-minute rain, and we’re out there with the cones,” said resident Will Herbert. “You have the stormwater there, and you also have the sewer system. So when you get failures… you’re dealing with collapses.”
“It did get flooded worse than any spot in the whole street right out here,” resident Cathy O’Dell said. “It was like a river flowing, but maybe an hour later it all like receded.”
Keller said that the Town will contact Pinellas County to obtain more information on its maintenance program.
We’re the calm during the storm. No hype, only help!
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