JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Multiple temporary pumps were stationed around Jacksonville’s San Marco neighborhood Friday to help alleviate flooding that took place on multiple days after heavy rain events.
In San Marco Friday, seeing tow trucks, stalled cars and people pushing cars was a regular occurrence.
“I went through two hurricanes here and never even came close to the flooding or the depth of the water on this roadway,” said Raymond Borger whose car stalled out in the middle of the road near his home.
Borger's story was not unique. Cars were seen in other areas of town as well, including on Park Street in Avondale where multiple cars were parked crookedly on curbs near Edgewood Avenue, some parked partially in the street. Video obtained by First Coast News showed water even reaching buses.
"I came back a half an hour later, there was another car similar to mine about 50 feet down the road toward the river also broke down and on that corner there was another one also flooded out,” Borger said.
Jacksonville City Councilmember Joe Carlucci, District 5, is expecting less flooding in San Marco starting Friday, thanks to about a dozen temporary pumps. He'd been working with the city's public works department.
“We’ve gotten a lot of the clogs out of the reported pipes that were clogged," Carlucci said. "They cleaned out the filters in the pump stations.”
Carlucci said in January the new La Salle Street pump will be online.
“This whole stretch will have a massive amount of water being sucked out of it in these future hurricanes or rain events,” he said.
This is good news for businesses near La Salle Street like Rusted, where the owners said Friday they had to get about 500 gallons of water out of a back room the night before. On Friday, they worked to put in a new concrete floor in the back room after finding water started seeping up through the floor.
They're also hoping the LaSalle Street pump, paired with the others Carlucci said are stationed around the area, will help.
“It should be a very different story,” Carlucci said about flooding next year.
Emergency officials remind drivers not to try to drive through water because it’s not safe. Drivers like Borger are also having to deal with totaled cars.