HOLLYWOOD, FLA. (WSVN) - Residents of several flood-prone neighborhoods in South Florida are worried as they gear up to protect their homes before heavy rain forecast to hit the area arrives.
After several floods across the region over the past couple of years, forecasts of heavy rain for multiple days are making residents nervous.
Hollywood resident Linda Destasio said she has been through this many times before.
“I have [post-traumatic stress disorder] from rain,” said Linda Destasio. “I have to get out of my house.”
After several South Florida floods over the past couple years, forecasts of heavy rain for days are hard to think about.
“I’m shaking already,” said Destasio. “I just went to get dog food. I’m getting ready to put my sandbags now.”
Destasio’s street floods easily.
The city of Hollywood has spent weeks adding drains and digging trenches in efforts to move the water away. It’s a new system that could be tested as early as next week.
Destasio wonders how well it will work.
“There’s no drainage, there’s not a pitch on either level to say, ‘Go to this drain or go to that drain,'” she said.
Destasio is not alone. Her neighbor around the corner flooded a year and a half ago and then nearly again in June.
“I was about an inch away from getting flooded again. One inch,” he said. “Yeah, it was almost into the house.”
One woman said flooding has forced several of her neighbors to pack up and move.
“She moved because of the flood, she moved because of the flood, she moved because of the flood,” the woman said as she pointed at several homes. ” “There’s three people that they sold the house.”
Of course, the issue is not limited to just Hollywood. Residents in Dania Beach and Hallandale Beach remember the rains of last June.
And it’s not just happening in Broward County. Flooding happened along Northeast 23rd Street in Miami-Dade, as well as in Miami Beach.
“Some of the flooding is crazy, I’m not going to lie,” said a man.
Pumps are out, and cities are doing what they can to prepare for the heavy rain.
Hopefully, next week won’t be an event, but for those who’ve gone through flooding before, it’s worrisome just thinking about it.
“You buy a house to feel safe you know what I mean, and you can’t feel safe in this area right now,” said Destasio.
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