SARASOTA, Fla. — Sarasota County Public Works crews have completed drainage cleanup from last week's historic rainfall and flooding that followed.
However, officials would continue monitoring several locations within the county and city with persisting drainage issues.
Business owners who had the flood waters affect their businesses remain concerned about a repeat situation ahead of future storms.
The neighbors who live and work near the intersection of 8th Street and Lime Avenue said despite at least four storm drains at some of the intersections nearby, when debris collects on the grates during heavy rainfall, it only makes the situation worse during heavy rain.
"The water has no place to go in this situation because the rain lasted long, really torrential downpours for over two hours. It just kept rising up and up inside our space," said Kim Livengood, owner of The Bazaar at Apricot and Lime.
The drains, which are not far from the Bazaar at Apricot and Lime, were no match for the historic eight inches of rain that Sarasota County officials said fell within three hours.
"10 minutes of rain and where does the debris go, it floats towards that storm drain and it just covers it off. It is the leaves, it's trash. I mean we found a tire on it before so it's not a good system for heavy downpours," Livengood said.
While the mess has been cleaned up for now, this hurricane season is expected to be active. Livengood said she's not putting away her sandbags or cleaning tools yet.
"We've had this problem for a long time and we keep telling the city or the county, whoever will listen that there is definitely a drainage issue. They are old system there and we are pretty good about keeping an eye on it to make sure that the debris is not on it," Livengood said.
The city of Sarasota has an agreement with the county to maintain all stormwater systems within city limits.
County officials said several hundred miles of drains are cleaned periodically throughout the county and additional cleaning is done when a storm is approaching.
But the community's help is also needed to keep drains clear of debris, especially loose vegetation before it gets into the drain pipes during heavy rainfall.
"If it can float, it can go into a stormwater system. So if you're able to go out and pick up your yard, clean up on any landscaping debris. After the most recent event even we were surprised with the amount of mulch that made it into the stormwater system," said Spencer Anderson, Sarasota County Public Works Director.
While officials urged neighbors to keep an eye on drains in their areas and rake blocked grates when they can, they advised to leave it to the professionals during the height of a storm or flash flooding event.
"Water is powerful and if there is a significant amount of water on top of a grade and you pull an opening in the grade that wasn't there. It could create a very assumption and the person may get trapped or injured," Anderson said.
While doing their part to keep their drains clear, neighbors are keeping their eyes on the sky too.
"Winds are not as bad for us as a torrential downpour and I really hope that mother nature just behaves this season, if we get torrential downpours again, we're going to be a lot more prepared though so we do have sandbags out and we're going to just keep them out all summer," Livengood said.
Sarasota County officials say if you have problem drains in your neighborhood or just need it checked ahead of a storm, you should call 311 and a public works crew will be dispatched to get it cleaned.