Flooding at McCoy Creek has Resident Upset

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- When the afternoon rains tapered off Wednesday afternoon, Robert Fanuel knew what he'd find when he walked out in front of his McCoy Creek home.

Water, water, everywhere, with barricades closing his street.

"This here is totally ridiculous! This is ridiculous!" said Fanuel.

Robert Fanuel is fed up with the McCoy Creek flooding making a 1/2 mile of his road impassible to vehicles. The problem has been ongoing for generations.

"Frustrating is not the word! You've got people that live here. You mean to tell me you got to go way over to Edison (Street) to come around to your house?"

And while McCoy has flooded for generations, road construction led to a number of road hazards and closures in the area, flooding driveways and roadways alike.

"Life Happens" is the sign on the side of one JTA bus detouring around watery streets. Sometimes life happens in unexpected ways, as passengers ended up stranded when the bus wheel fell into a four-foot deep construction hole.

As drains swelled in San Marco, folks at Peterbrooke Chocolatiers readied dozens of sandbags stored on-site just in case high tide brought flooding.

Elsewhere, city crews did their best to stay ahead of storm debris by pumping drains.

But Robert Fanuel just wonders if his neighborhood will ever be fixed.

"Within this year this is four times I've seen the river and this little canal crest like this. If the Mayor was so concerned about the Better Jacksonville thing...why don't he come down here and look at this?"

In recent years, the city has created a series of retention ponds along McCoy Creek, but residents say much more needs to be done.

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