Hurricane Debby floods Bradenton properties near Manatee River after ‘historic’ rainfall

When a Bradenton man let his brother borrow his car to go to work Monday, the last thing he expected was for it to end up stuck and submerged in water.

But as Tod Diep stared at his Audi Tuesday afternoon, the top of the car was barely visible above the flowing waters that flooded Upper Manatee River Road in the wake of Hurricane Debby’s historic rainfall and the “strategic release” of water from Lake Manatee .

“Honestly, when I heard the news, I was a little bit angry that my brother got himself into that situation,” Diep said. “But I’m just happy everyone is OK.”

Diep said his brother was forced to sit on the blue sedan’s roof in near-total darkness at 4 a.m. while waiting to be rescued, with the car stuck and water levels rising.

Diep’s brother is one of hundreds rescued amid a storm that Manatee County Commissioner Mike Rahn called a “100-year-flood,” signifying the rarity of such a weather event. Rahn said emergency operations teams have been working 24/7 to assist residents throughout the storm.

As of Tuesday morning, Rahn said there have been 55 water rescues to save 210 individuals and two horses in Manatee County since the storm began. Over the last three days, Rahn said the call center has fielded over 2,200 calls.

Hurricane Debby causes ‘historic’ flooding

“This was historic. I mean, we’ve had massive amounts of rain dumped on us at one time. Some places got up to 18 inches of rain in Manatee County along with high tides,” Rahn said. “That’s what caused a lot of this.”

Rahn appeared alongside U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-FL, and fellow Manatee County leaders at a news conference Tuesday morning, where they discussed the impacts of Hurricane Debby.

Scott said he met with FEMA officials last week to ensure resources will be available as needed.

Both Scott and Bradenton Mayor Gene Brown urged residents to take caution in the days following the storm.

“We can rebuild our houses, our businesses, things like that. You just can’t rebuild a life,” Scott said.

Among the things that will need to be rebuilt in Hurricane Debby’s aftermath is the fencing along the 22 acres of Nicole Phelan’s Rye Road property, more than half of which she estimates is under 10 to 12 feet of water following the release of water from Lake Manatee.

“We went from a pasture property to a waterfront property,” Phelan said.

Manatee residents miss emergency release alert

County officials announced Monday that a “strategic release” of water from Lake Manatee was done as a precautionary measure to ensure the structural integrity of the Manatee Dam amid heavy rainfall.

But Phelan said she and her partner recently bought the property and did not receive emergency alerts from the county giving notice that the water was being released.

“We had no idea where the water was coming from. We assumed it was the river,” Phelan said.

Phelan said she was very fortunate that her house did not appear to be damaged in the flood, but said that while she knows the county had to release the water in order to preserve the dam, she wishes officials handled the situation differently and found a way to warn more residents.

Some Bradenton residents took to social media Monday to share similar complaints, arguing that the county didn’t give people enough notice.

But Rahn said the county did its best under unprecedented circumstances.

“There might be some residents that didn’t see it, didn’t hear it or didn’t look on any of the social media that we sent out, but our public information team does a phenomenal job of getting information out as fast we can. This event happened very quickly and happened very suddenly,” Rahn said. “The dam did exactly what it’s supposed to do.”

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