HURRICANE IRMA
ing Tropical Storm Fay or hurricanes Jeanne and Frances,
officials said.
In Fort Pierce, Sabal Chase Apartments, Orange Blossom
Business Center (formerly Mall) and its parking lot, and Isola
Bella predictably flooded. Skatetown on Orange Avenue
flooded so badly that the skating rink’s floor was ruined. In Indian
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River County, there was flooding in Fellsmere and in Vero
Lake Estates. Stuart and Martin County had minimal flooding.
Port St. Lucie, notorious in the past for flooding after heavy
rains, escaped this time, Public Works Director James Angstadt
said. A few years ago, the city embarked on an ambitious
plan to fix the drainage in the eastern half of the city
and it succeeded. Before Irma, the city began lowering the
water in the canals that catch stormwater — it takes several
days, he said. So even though water collected in swales, it
drained to the canals very quickly. A backup pumping system
was also installed so it could take over in case the primary
pumps failed.
CLEANUP UNDERWAY
Officials in the cities and three Treasure Coast counties
agreed that Hurricane Matthew last year did a good job of
pruning off dead wood and as a result, Irma’s vegetative
destruction was not as bad as it could have been. The cities
and counties hired vegetation debris contractors to pick up
the large piles that resulted from cleanups.
It could be a month or more from the time Irma hit until
the trees and palm fronds are all picked up.
Angstadt said Port St. Lucie expected to pick up around
70,00 to 80,000 cubic yards of debris. A Federal Emergency
Management Agency debris estimating guide says that one
acre of land with debris piled 10 feet high equals 16,000 cubic
yards, which means the city’s debris could equal 5 acres of
land with debris piled 10 feet high.
Martin County expects to pick up 150,000 cubic yards of
debris, said spokeswoman Martha Ann Kneiss.
Overall, damage to Treasure Coast structures was less than
in 2004. Martin County sustained $4.5 million in damages
throughout the county, according to preliminary figures.
Stuart’s popular RiverWalk, a boardwalk structure on pilings
above the river was damaged, Amerson said, but Irma
was kind compared with Frances and Jeanne, which ripped
JOE SEMKOW
Residents wade through flooding off Oslo Road and 58th Avenue in Vero Beach.
>>
IAN GRONSKY
VERO BEACH 10-12 inches
STUART 9.6 inches
FORT PIERCE 21.65 inches
PORT ST. LUCIE 11.5 inches
RAINFALL
from NWS and other community sources
(amounts vary by location within each county)
ST. LUCIE COUNTY 21.65 to 7.5 inches
MARTIN COUNTY 8-10 inches
INDIAN RIVER COUNTY 10-14.15 inches
A sailboat from the keys washed ashore on Melbourne Beach, with many people calling it a ghost ship.