‘Not doing enough': Fort Lauderdale residents concerned as city discusses flooding issues

Flooding is a constant concern in parts of Fort Lauderdale. People living in one neighborhood brought their concerns to city leaders during a community meeting Thursday night.

The city is holding a series of meetings to talk about projects they're working on to alleviate flooding in many Fort Lauderdale neighborhoods. They held one at the Melrose Park Community Center Thursday night.

Melrose Park is a neighborhood that's dealt with flooding several times over the last few years. Syreeta Cook says her neighborhood was under water just this past December.

“Regular rain but water was so deep it was coming in the yard,” Cook said. “You have to come home from work, sandbag to make sure your property is safe so when you get home, water is not inside, yeah, it's devastating.”

Jamie De Gale has lived in the neighborhood since 1986.

“They haven't been dredging the canals at all,” De Gale said. “We need something for right now, temporary to take care of the situation. We're going to get flooded again, but we need something to help alleviate that flood system.”

De Gale thinks the city could have done things differently to prevent what we've seen over the last couple of years.

“Maintenance, getting trash out of the pipe systems that drain into the canals,” De Gale said.

It was almost two years ago when Melrose Park and several other neighborhoods in Fort Lauderdale saw historic flooding.

The city of Fort Lauderdale says it is working to reduce flooding through what's called Fortify Lauderdale Stormwater Improvement Projects.

City leaders discussed the project Thursday night with Melrose Park homeowners.

The city's mayor says they're installing stormwater systems in areas that have poor systems or have never had them. He says they're working on six neighborhoods now, but they've already finished work in the Edgewood and River Oaks neighborhoods.

“It will certainly reduce the amount of impact as these neighborhoods will be able to drain much more quickly than they would have before,” Mayor Dean Trantalis said. “Our neighbors don't deserve to have this kind of impact on their property, they couldn't get in and out of their homes.”

It’ll take years before the work in Melrose Park is complete. Homeowners learned Thursday that the work in their neighborhood may take a decade.

Many like Cook don't believe the city will move quickly enough.

“I really believe they're not doing enough,” Cook said. “I may not have a house in 2034 with the consistency with all the flooding, I don't think I'll be here, or I'll move.”

The mayor says the project will cost $1.6 billion. He says after they finish the work in the six remaining neighborhoods, they'll tackle another 17 neighborhoods, which includes Melrose Park.