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.
[EXCLUSIVE: Become a News 6 Insider (it’s FREE) | PINIT! Share your photos]
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:
Excessive rain over the weekend caused pipes in three areas of the City to be compromised and the following roads were closed as a result: Walden Ave, SE, Weldon St SE, and Highland Avenue, NW.
Two of the three locations were already included in the City’s budget for replacement for this year. For Walden Ave, the project was recently awarded to a contractor, and due to the emergency closure, the contractor will be on site within the next week to start the replacement project sooner than originally planned.
For both Weldon St and Highland Ave, City staff will perform a temporary repair to enable both roadways to be re-opened within a few weeks and the City will hire a contractor to install the permanent fix.
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.
Get today’s headlines in minutes with Your Florida Daily: