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Residents Return to Flooded Homes
03/29/09 - 09:54 PM
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Walton County, Fla:

Walton County is still in a declared state of emergency. 

Saturday night, residents near the Shoal River in Mossy Head were encouraged to evacuate.  The water level is now going down, but that doesn’t mean Walton Residents are in the clear.

Jon Bean returns to a soggy back yard.  Behind his home, the Shoal River begins to level off, after a night of rising danger.

“This is the first time it scared me since hurricane george came through,” he said.

Bean lost his home in the 1998 storm.  The water level reached 7 feet.  This time the waters reached half as high.

You can tell just how high the water got by the grass clippings on Bean’s truck door.  Another indicator lines the outside of his home, nearly four feet high.

“When I saw how high the water was hitting on my truck I said to my wife, we gotta get out of here and quick.”

Bean was one of hundreds of residents urged to evacuate their homes Saturday.  According to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, the Shoal crested at 22.7 feet early Saturday morning.

Walton County Emergency Response Director Ed Baltzley says 15 homes may have been flooded with more than 2 feet of water inside.

“We’re accumulated the cost of all these in hopes of giving it to the state to hopefully make this a declared area.”

Fortunately for Bean, his home did not suffer major damage.  With more rain in the forecast, however, his guard is still up.

“Tomorrow I’ll pull my travel trailer to higher ground because I understand we’ve got more rain coming later this week.  With the ground this wet, who knows I don’t want to find out with a trailer down here.”

Forecasters expect the Shoal River to rise to near 15.6 feet by Monday morning and to fall below flood stage Wednesday night.

User Comments

The recent storms clearly show the risks and hazards of living close to any of the rivers in northwest Florida.  But pity the poor folks who live near Steelfield Road along Highway 79, in the community known as Woodville.  They are not near any rivers, and had no flood concerns, until the “highway engineers” manufactured a huge problem for them in widening and four laning Highway 79.  Many of them will be unable to access their mobile homes until the ‘high tide’ recedes.  Nice job, Dept. of Transportation.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  03/30  at  08:28 AM
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