Evacuate Riverside and San Marco. River predicted to Overflow Banks by 3pm

[uptowngirl]

Vital important transit information is perhaps being lost in our zeal to see "the most shocking" photo.
Is someone, ANYONE, making a list of every street flood, no matter how big or how little? If so then a reverse list could be made of the roads that DIDN'T FLOOD and we have our evacuation pathways, ready to label in every part of town. JTA? Anyone listening? Streets? Public Works? Anyone home? JSO? Got a list?

OCKLAWAHA

Ocklawaha. you are so right.  Tragically, brilliantly right.

At first I thought that the city must have done the reconaissance work, since there was the comprehensive street closings list (whose links from the jacksonville.com site I posted above).

However, as Lee Harvey and I did a fairly thorough drive around in the core districts, we found that the closed roads did not actually match up to the flooded roads, meaning---one can only assume-- that the city was working with pregathered information that no longer accurately reflects the on the ground reality.

I wonder if we should post a street grid of the internal neighborhoods and ask people to contribute which streets were flooded and which ones werent, and how badly.

The flooding in the old Dignan Park system (confederate park, klutho, and springfield etc) was just breathtaking.

The karpeles was under water.

However the area was still navigable by means of the FCCJ parking lot and the modern bridges and roads.

All basements were "underwater" the Karples building was not, the water came up to the steps, the basement entrance on the side may have flooded, becasue it had water in it last week and it wasn't even raining. In fact I don;t know of any houses in Springfield that flooded, nor did we lose electricity. parks yes, homes no.

[jbm32206]

there's at least one I know of that the basement has water in...but overall, we made out very well

[RiversideGator]

I had a little flooding and water damage at my house too.  Nothing catastrophic though and we are dealing with it. 

I drove through Springfield today and saw no evidence of a massive flood.  The park had some standing water but that was about it.  It was about what you would expect from such a heavy rainfall.

[jbm32206]

The flooding in Springfield had pretty much receded when I drove through the neighborhood this morning. Had you gone through yesterday at any time, you would've seen how badly it was flooded

[uptowngirl]

I had a little flooding and water damage at my house too.  Nothing catastrophic though and we are dealing with it. 

I drove through Springfield today and saw no evidence of a massive flood.  The park had some standing water but that was about it.  It was about what you would expect from such a heavy rainfall.

Flooding is to be expected unless the city does soemthign with Hogans Creek. It needs to be dredged at a minimum and cleaning up all trash and educating morons on throwing batteries, shopping carts, and tires in it further north and west would be a good start too... This si the worst I have seen it flood yet, the water was up to the bottom of the score board and that has got be around 3 feet. Overall though, compared to the rest of the downtown neighborhoods Springfield weathered the storm best of all.

[downtownparks]

The Lakes helped, and certainly need to be re-installed, but its worth mentioning that they didnt solve the problem on their own. I mean, I know I am new to town, and dont know squat, but I seem to remember something about Kluthos Plan including flood gates and massive pumps being installed at the foot of the creek.

[downtownparks]

Im not as cool or as informed as you. Didnt you hang our with Klutho back when you were helping plan Arlington?

[Lunican]

I drove through Springfield today and saw no evidence of a massive flood.  The park had some standing water but that was about it.  It was about what you would expect from such a heavy rainfall.

Did you really see no evidence at all?

[RiversideGator]

None at all.  I saw evidence of some standing water but no evidence of massive flooding by any means.  And, contrary to what some say, I am not making light of the misfortune of others.  I personally suffered flood and water damage but the truth is this wasnt that bad of an event on the whole.

[Lunican]

None at all.  I saw evidence of some standing water but no evidence of massive flooding by any means.  And, contrary to what some say, I am not making light of the misfortune of others.  I personally suffered flood and water damage but the truth is this wasnt that bad of an event on the whole.

So are you saying it didn't happen or are you just informing everyone that you missed it?

[will]

I live in Avondale and didn't see any flooding - not even much standing water - during the storm. I was surprised to hear the reports of flooding once power came back on. I guess it varied block to block.

[thelakelander]

It varied from block to block, with the lowest areas suffering the most.  However, it appears most of the flood drained pretty quick once the rain stopped.

[Ocklawaha]

Ahh I got you Ock. Wouldn't the trolleys suffer from the floods also since they are at street level? Putting the Skyway "up in the Sky" was a good Idea I guess. I would seem that the water is suppose to drain to the St. Johns, but the St. Johns is over flowing so where is the water suppose to go? Nieghborhoods that flood like this should have a Skyway Station, but man in time it looks like the flood water is getting deeper. What can Jax do not to become the next New Orleans tragedy?

No, more like a near miss rather then a gottcha. True, streetcars are in the street (sometimes) but they are also railroad-trains. This of course means they could be alongside the CSX on a 12' high bank of dirt. Or running up through Springfield, on an abandoned railroad grade that is already 4'-6' high. The streets that I have laid out, don't have flooding. The segment over Hogans Creek east of downtown to the Stadium would be on private right-of-way, in fact a fairly steep grade to obtain the level of Phillip Randolph. So as long as the grade was built for drainage, so as not to become a dam, I don't see the water overtopping it. Most folks don't know the upper line on Duval (a historic trolley route) not only serves the Cathedral District, The Library, Museum of Modern Art, City Hall, Skyway, Metropolitan Lofts, New Court House, La Villa School of the Arts, Ritz etc... It also crosses the crest of a large sandy hill that Jacksonville is built on. This hill is high enough above the river that we "could" build a subway (if we completely lost our minds).

Someone else mentioned TUNNELS, why didn't we just have tunnel's... Good question. Modern tunnels would work all of the time and allow for traffic in the worst conditions. But be careful what you ask for (and I AM a big tunnel supporter) we already have one! Anyone that has not driven to the west end of Bay Street and turned South through the Myrtle Avenue Subway (The trolley went down the center, look at the ceiling there and you can see where the metal "pans" carried the power through) is in for a shock. Just don't try it after a rain. The old Jacksonville Traction Company probably had huge electric pumps to keep it bone dry, but when they shut down in the early 1930's, whatever they used was disconnected. Thus we have a unique water-world every storm from 1930 until today... Progress Phooie!

When I went over my newspapers for Donna and Dora, two tropical storms that beat the #($^&#^ out of us back in 1960 and 1964 I found a classic line. "The toll takers on the bridges said the gusts from Dora were more like earthquakes"... Which tells us the mind set of our fair city.

THE TOLL BOOTHS WERE OPEN THROUGH THE STORMS!

WITH 127 MPH WIND, SO WAS THE MATTHEWS BRIDGE!

But hey, we didn't lose a dime!

OCKLAWAHA

[RiversideGator]

None at all.  I saw evidence of some standing water but no evidence of massive flooding by any means.  And, contrary to what some say, I am not making light of the misfortune of others.  I personally suffered flood and water damage but the truth is this wasnt that bad of an event on the whole.

In your opinion, River, whats the worst event youve personally experienced in jax so far?

Are we talking natural disaster?   

[RiversideGator]

None at all.  I saw evidence of some standing water but no evidence of massive flooding by any means.  And, contrary to what some say, I am not making light of the misfortune of others.  I personally suffered flood and water damage but the truth is this wasnt that bad of an event on the whole.

So are you saying it didn't happen or are you just informing everyone that you missed it?

I am saying some localized flooding occurred in the old City of Jax but that it wasnt unprecedented by any means or even as bad as other storms.