BONITA SPRINGS, Fla. -- Bonita Springs is still under inches and feet of water in some places, two weeks after Hurricane Irma.
South Florida Water Management District official Phil Flood tells Fox 4 the flooding is happening in lower lying, older communities that do not have developed drainage systems. "The problem is there's too much water to get out through the small system we have," he said.
They have installed two pumps on Bonita Beach Road to help with some of the flooding while they work on a long-term solution. The pumps will redirect water into the Cocohatchee River. This is away from the Imperial River, which causes flooding in several neighborhoods. "What we're doing is we're pulling that water off the side of the road, pumping it into the Cocohatchee and now it's going out to the Gulf of Mexico through Wiggin's Pass," said Flood.
Flood says installing pumps in individual neighborhoods would be counter productive. "It seems like a real simple thing, 'I'm going to pump this water right out,' but there's no place for the water to go to. You pump it right off of Quinn Street, it's just going to run right around the next block, and it's going to fill right back into the Imperial River and back right back up into Quinn Street again."
