ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — Plans are in the works in St. Augustine that could impact flooding and change the look of historic downtown.
The National Park Service is planning to update the seawall around the Castillo de San Marcos and wants to hear from residents about the project.
Downtown St. Augustine businesses are no strangers to floods during past hurricanes.
“Matthew, the water came up to here, and with Irma, it was to here,” said Judy Norris as she pointed to the door of Tradewinds where she works in Downtown St. Augustine.
Norris said she has worked at Tradewinds for 25 years; that's 25 years of sandbagging and trying to keep water out during flooding events.
“What happens is the surge and the high tide," Norris said. "Then you get all the rain and the wind, it starts coming over the seawall.”
The seawalls on both Avenida Menedez and around Castillo de San Marcos are due for upgrades, according to the National Park Service and the Florida Department of Transportation.
“The seawall, not only is it structurally failing, but it's not high enough to prevent water when we get even normal storms,” said National Park Service Superintendent Gordie Wilson.
FDOT Spokesperson Hampton Ray said on Avenida Menedez, the part of the seawall people walk on will drop by two feet and the wall will be built up three feet higher.
He said the main focus isn't to mitigate flooding, but to make the seawall reliable.
“In several of the storms that we've seen over the years, we saw a sailboat that slammed up against the seawall," Ray said. "It definitely prompted us to look and see how things are.”
Wilson said around the fort, they plan to stabilize and raise the seawall, possibly to the same height the new seawall will be down the street. Wilson said they don’t want the fort to be the low point letting water in.
“Some of the washouts we get when water comes over the wall can and has impacted archaeological resources," Wilson said. "So the things that are underground that we're trying to protect are also threatened when these storms happen.”
Norris will be glad for any opportunity to use fewer sandbags.
“We've learned how to seal the doors and sandbag!” Norris said.
The public comment period for the Castillo de San Marcos seawall starts Monday and lasts until July 17.
A public meeting is scheduled for June 25 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Renaissance St. Augustine Historic Downtown Hotel at 6 West Castillo Drive. Anyone can also join the meeting on Zoom, click here for more information.