Florida residents demand answers on flooding after Debby

SARASOTA COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) — It was an absolutely devastating view as Judi and Dave Park walked through their home three days after Tropical Storm Debby drenched Sarasota County in Florida.

“It’s really strange because we’ve all seen videos like this of people riding in on boats to see their homes which are destroyed, you think, ‘that’s terrible,’ and then you go have your dinner,” Judi Park said.

But that’s not the case for dozens of families in the Laurel Meadows neighborhood in Sarasota County, as they try to salvage irreplaceable memories.

“You kind of mentally say goodbye to everything and it’s kind of a treasure when you get a picture or something, but walking through your house to see floorboards floating, it’s not easy,” Judi Park said.

It’s a story residents are telling again and again and again: that by the time anyone knew to pack their cars and get out, it was too late.

“In the morning, when we got up, it was about three quarters up our driveway and then it just didn’t stop,” Dave Park said.

Many of these people are noticing neighboring communities like Artistry are high and dry, wondering why Laurel Meadows flooded this badly.

“And if it’s not Artistry, and it might be this water plant, if there’s pumps failing and sewage over here, someone needs to start speaking up and saying here’s the problem and we have a solution because this is unacceptable,” Matt Jonas said, as he got off of a boat salvaging whatever belongings he could from his home.

NewsNation affiliate WFLA took residents’ concerns to Gov. Ron DeSantis to get answers.

“It is not like people were shirking,” DeSantis said. “They were in spots where this was not something that had typically happened.”

“Things are developing, so we are going to have to look and maybe give people a better sense going forward just given how these areas have boomed,” he said.

As Jonas can’t stay in his home for yet another night, he questioned, “Did this ditch cause it, did that cause it, did that cause it, what is it?”

“There’s a real problem here,” Jonas said. “The county needs to step up, own it, resolve it and get this water out of here.”

“At the county level, we bring about more regulation related to green space, open space, retention, but again all of those are based on normal modeling of watershed,” Sarasota County Commissioner Mike Moran said.

“This was by far not even close to normal watershed,” he said.

Moran called Tropical Storm Debby a historic rain event for Sarasota County.

WFLA chief meteorologist Jeff Berardelli said Tropical Storm Debby’s rainfall was a one-in-200-year event for Sarasota County.

While knowing this isn’t normal is easing the minds of some, others are looking at a pool of water just wondering when they can go home.

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