2023 Hurricane Idalia Flooding

August 31, 2023

The County sent out the following emergency update the day after the storm (Aug. 31 at 5pm):

September 7, 2023

October 3, 2023

Herald-Tribune article:  NWS Hurricane Idalia report: Most damage in Sarasota and Manatee came from storm surge

September-October 2023

The St. Armands Residents Association had several communications with the Sarasota County Public Works Director and we sent several update emails to our membership.

October 2023

November 7, 2023

At a Regular Meeting of the St. Armands Residents Association Board, the Sarasota County Director of Public Works, the City of Sarasota Director of Public Works, and the City Engineer were all present to answer questions about the flooding from Hurricane Idalia.  The Sarasota County Director of Public Works gave this presentation.

December 17, 2023

Another flooding event; at 2:30am, the Sarasota Police Department issued an alert on their Facebook page stating that roadways on St Armands Circle were underwater and that the area was closed. Flooding was so bad that the Lutheran Church had to cancel all their Sunday morning religious services.  

There was a fairly high tide (but not a king tide) and fairly high winds, which resulted in in 3-or-so feet of storm surge. On one property, the "frack line" looked to be about a foot lower in height than it was during Hurricane Idalia.

The County told us:

One pump station overheated (PS 7010) and the storm drains leading to another (PS 2005) were clogged from vegetation/debris.

January 4, 2024

Response to our concerns from County Stormwater Operations Manager:

CONCERN #1. Many residents don’t understand why the County doesn’t

think that years of vegetation, mulch, and litter may have caused at least

partial blockages of storm drains and pipes below grade

There are nine baffleboxes on St. Armands Key. Baffleboxes are designed to capture both floatables and solids coming through the pipeline system. These boxes are inspected quarterly and cleaned as needed. The county would inspect the system to find the main contributor if we had significant accumulations. In the past years, we have cleaned the screens for floatable, but only once have we needed to clean for solids, which was shortly after construction.

CONCERN #2. Due to the volume of water on our streets after both recent

flooding events, many residents lack confidence that the outfalls (discharge

pipes) have fully operational backflow preventers

• During Hurricane Idalia, residents reported seeing water coming up from storm drains hours before the peak storm surge.
• After the December 17 flooding, residents have reported dead plants, which makes people think that salt water did come up through the storm drains at both locations

We have four Tide Flex Valves on the system. They have all been inspected and are functioning. The misconception of Tide Flex valves is that they will stop all the water from infiltrating the system. They only slow down the process. Gravity stormwater pipeline joints are connected with gaskets or put together with Ram Neck (a tar-like material), and then the joints are wrapped with cloth. This process prevents the sand from entering the pipe; however, the joint can still allow water to flow into the pipe. Although this is not an acceptable practice for sanitary sewers that need sealed joints, it is for storm sewers. The pump stations run several times daily, whether it is raining or not, because of saltwater water infiltration.

CONCERN #3. For those residents who now know they are faced with the

possibility of flooding, how do we keep them from endangering their lives

by patrolling the streets with metal rakes, in the middle of a storm with

high winds and in the dark of night, to make sure that storm drains are not

getting covered with vegetation?

• Do residents have to choose between personal safety and possible property damage?
• If our storm drains are prone to blockage from vegetation during wind events, is there any way to monitor and clear them during a storm? Is there any way to design them to keep this from happening?
• Around 2:30am on December 17, the Sarasota Police Department issued an alert on their Facebook page stating that roadways on St Armands Circle were underwater and that the area was closed. A resident going to the airport at 5am on December 17 reported that there were two different police officers stationed in different locations on St. Armands to warn and divert drivers. At what time did the County arrive on St. Armands and how did the County learn about the flooding?
• Does the County get real-time notification of City police activity like this? For future flooding events, what if anything can be changed to get the County on site sooner (to clear storm drains and to reset pumps)?

The residents should call 861-5000 or 311. We have on-call staff 24 hours a day. If the inlets were designed to allow the vegetation into the system, it would most likely clog the pumps, and what was small enough to be pumped out would be discharged into the bay, polluting the bay. I was informed of the problem around 7:45 AM via an email from the city and was on-site at 8 AM. The city police have contacts with the city's emergency management folks, and I can only assume they made those calls. I can't speak for them because I do not know. The county relies on the residents to notify them of any problems. You are our eyes and ears, so please report issues as they arise by calling 861-5000 or 311 and report the problem as soon as you see it. We have a SCADA on our stations that reports power failure. Power failure reports do not convey a clogged grate.

January 4, 2024

The following picture was taken yesterday at Pump Station PS 2005:

One of the workers told a resident that "They are removing the pump that was found to have a large piece of concrete lodged in it".

County response:

SCADA notified us that there was a high current on the pump. Staff confirmed high amperage and ran the pumps in reverse to see if they could remove whatever was lodged between the impeller and the volute. When it didn’t work, we called our subcontractor to pull and inspect the pump. That is when they found the concrete. Unfortunately, I think it may have been my fault. When I cleared the grate across the street from the station on Dec. 17th, rebar covered the open throat to keep floatables out. I grabbed onto it with my rake and accidentally ripped it off. It was set into the concrete, and some concrete may have fallen in and been picked up by the pump.

January 8, 2024

SARA sends these follow-up questions to the County Stormwater Operations Manager:

• In the Dec 17 flooding event, you came out afterward and cleared debris from clogged storm drains above grade. We still have one resident convinced that at least one storm drain at the corner of N Adams Dr and Madison Dr was blocked below grade (I had sent you the picture below in a separate email), which, if true, still needs an explanation.
• Can we make an educated guess whether the debris blocking the storm drains was dead vegetation that was already on the grown, or live vegetation that the wind ripped off of trees? If the chances are reasonable that most/much of the blockage was caused by dead vegetation that was already on the ground, then this stormwater management system can't exist in a vacuum--it's effective operation depends on coordinated street cleaning, and the cleaning of medians, in advance of any storm. Is the City or the County responsible for street sweeping? I believe City Parks & Rec is responsible for maintaining the plantings in the medians. And obviously individual residents have to keep their own properties clear.
• How do we make sure that our streets and medians are cleared of dead vegetation and litter in advance of a storm event? Because, if we don't, if there is no such coordination, December 17 shows us that our stormwater management system will be ineffective.
• You mentioned that we have four Tide Flex Valves (backflow preventers) on the system, but I believe we have a total of eight outfalls (discharge pipes). Do the other half of our outfalls have any type of backflow preventer? The outfall from PS 2005 doesn't appear to have any sort of "duckbill" on the end. 
• I'm reading that if flooding occurs at 2am, that the County won't hear about it until some resident wakes up several hours later and calls 311. There is a possibility that police might do it overnight, but there is no guarantee. On December 17, if a resident had called 311 to report flooding at 2am, would you or anyone else have been on-call to come out over night? Or would you have not come out until you did?
• In the same way that you have SCADA-technology to alert you to a failure with the pump, is there some type of "float" that could be placed in a cylinder on the ground that could also use SCADA to automatically alert you in real-time that water was rising above grade? But, I guess it wouldn't matter if there was no one on-call to come out in real time.

January 8, 2024

Email from County Stormwater Operations Manager:

I understand the frustration of the street flooding. We are doing our best to get everything fully functioning again. We have new panels, emergency pump outs, and pumps. We are in the process of having the valve vault replumbed at 2005. 2005 recently had a pump go down, and we are still having problems at 7010 with the power supply. I do not know why the drain at Adams didn’t go down. When I showed up at Pump Station 2005 the pumps were running. I will have crews inspect the drains from Adams to 2005 for obstructions. We will also have staff driving the circle periodically tomorrow as the front moves in.

January 9, 2024

Another winter storm with high winds but minimal rain caused some flooding near the St. Armands Parking Garage due to continued problems with some pump stations.

The County told us:

The check valves (backflow prevention) at Pump Station PS 2005 "are shot" and that they are not sure why Pump Station PS 7010 (located on the east side of the key in the median of John Ringling Blvd near the intersection with N and S Washington Dr) stopped pumping.

January 12, 2024

Response to our questions from County Stormwater Operations Manager:

What happened at PS 7010 and PS 2005 on January 9, and what's going to be done about it?

Pumps station 2005 had tripped the thermals. SCADA notified me, and I reset it. It functioned just fine afterward. The problem with this station is that the check valves in the valve vault are shot. We have a purchase order to replace the old ductile iron piping with HDPE. This work should begin in a week or two. The check valves stop the water from flowing backward into the station. We still do not know why Pump Station 7010 stopped pumping. We set up the emergency pump, and everything was fine. The following day, the pumps were working as they should. We are still investigating this, but there is a chance that we need to install new power cable.

I am sure the City performs street sweeping. I am not sure of the frequency, but I will find out. [Later:] The city just got back to me. The streets are swept one a month.

All the stations have check valves In the vault, which prevent the discharge pipes from backflowing into the wetwell. There is no need for Tideflex valves in these locations.

As I said, the on-call staff is 24 hours a day, and yes, I have been out at 2 AM many times in my 22 years with the county. Luckily, I no longer have to do it, but I still will if needed. I do not believe a SCADA application would work for this.

We are working on it to ensure everything fully functions by next rainy season. For the record, the county has spent excessive funds updating the stations in the past year. All the stations now have new pumps, panels, and pump outs. 2005 will have the valve changed out, and 7010 will probably have new power cables.

January 22, 2024

Last week, the County replaced the backflow prevention valves at our Pump Station PS 2005, located in the northeast residential quadrant at the intersection of N Washington Dr and Madison Dr.

Notes from conversation with County Stormwater Operations Manager:

February 5, 2024

Another storm came through the area in the morning. A resident sent a picture of standing water all around a storm drain outside of the Lutheran Church, which the maps show draining to PS 7010.

February 7, 2024

Picture showing continued work on PS 2005:

February 14, 2024

County Stormwater Operations Manager response to questions about County Service Protocols for servicing our stormwater management system:

I do not have a protocol for this. I started my career in the County with Wastewater Utilities and am very familiar with Lift Station (LS) operations. Our service level is higher than what I used to perform for the Utility:

• Daily review SCADA for [electronic] alarms and notifications
• Once a week LS’s [lift stations] are run on generators to ensure the system is functioning properly.
• Monthly[:] inspect [pump] stations and record pump hours
• Quartly generates [Quarterly: generators] are inspected

February 15, 2024

County Stormwater Operations Manager responds to resident inquiry:

The life expectancy of Ductile iron pipe is 100 years, but that does not consider prolonged use in salt water. The new high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipe should give us 100 years in saltwater. All the stations on St. Armands have now been plumbed with HDPE. All the panels and pumps have been replaced. The panels should never need replacing, just parts replaced. The pumps usually have a 20-year life expectancy. This system was installed in 2006.

April 10, 2024

County Stormwater Operations Manager provides update on pump station repairs:

[PS 2005] has always had two pumps. One of the pump had to be repaired and reinstalled. Yes, 2005 is complete.

[PS 7010:] The new drills were completed and the wires pulled. Just about done.

April 11, 2024

Flooding across from St Armands Lutheran Church, reported as being “up to my knees in ten minutes” by St Armands resident.

County response:

7010 isn’t done yet. For some reason the pump didn’t turn on. I at this point have no idea. I called the electrician and he is not sure either. We are going to put it on the emergency pump for the evening.

April 17, 2024

The City of Sarasota sent out this tri-fold brochure with flooding information in the monthly water bill.

April 29, 2024

Followed up on status of PS 7010 work.

County response:

The controls are still not right. They are working manually by not in remote. The vendor should be looking at it this week.

May 13, 2024

ABC7 news story:  Downtown Sarasota, Siesta Key, among most vulnerable to flooding and sea level rise, according to City of Sarasota report

May 23, 2024

Followed up on status of PS 7010 work.

County response:

We are done. All stations are functioning as they should. We will continue to monitor them.