Palm Bay suffers road washouts, sewage spills from weekend flooding

City continues asking residents to limit water use as sewer system recovers

PALM BAY, Fla. – On Highland Avenue is one of the worst road washouts in the city of Palm Bay. The National Weather Service compared flooding in Brevard County over the weekend to Tropical Storm Faye 15 years ago.

And with about a half-foot of that rain falling Sunday, Florida’s DEP reported more than 100,000 gallons of sewage spilled.

Through a statement Monday, the city responded there are no longer any active overflows.

The city didn’t make a public works or utilities worker available to be interviewed about the storm.

“I wasn’t expecting it because it wasn’t like a tropical storm,” Julie Oakes said.

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Oakes and her neighbors are now following detours to get around more washouts over canals on Walden and Weldon streets.

“Very surprising, I went to go to Publix yesterday morning and was pretty shocked at how much water was on the roads,” she said.

The city released a statement Tuesday on the road repairs:

Joe Farinato said public works responded right away to close the roads.

“Their bulletins were pretty quick letting people know,” he said. “If you didn’t respond, you just kept letting you know that there were floods and to stay home.”

While the sewer system recovers, the city is asking people to limit how much water they use.

The city said water is safe to drink.


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About the Author
James Sparvero headshot

James joined News 6 in March 2016 as the Brevard County Reporter. His arrival was the realization of a three-year effort to return to the state where his career began. James is from Pittsburgh, PA and graduated from Penn State in 2009 with a degree in Broadcast Journalism.

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