JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Managing a San Marco restaurant for more than a decade, Jessica Lend grew accustomed to flooding there. But when the biggest storm in years sliced through the city, the neighborhood notorious for flooding did not.
“No water anywhere," said Lend, "It was really nice. I was really surprised.”
So Customers are flooding into her European Street restaurant instead of water here on San Marco Boulevard. The section of road just a block off the river had been plagued by drainage issues for years until the city upgraded a roadside system a few years ago to drain and pump flood water back into the Saint Johns River.
Lend said, “When they finished, the first time it rained everybody was bracing themselves. But it was just like it is right now.” Dry.
But beryl sure was a problem for people right across the river in Riverside where flooding was certainly an issue the past few days. People like Dianne Flint who live on the water in Riverside now wonder if the city can keep them as dry in future storms as San Marco is right now.
Flint told Action News, "They really should do something about it because it’s shutting down a lot of the city in this area.”
But flooding in Riverside came from rising river water. City officials tell Action News that because the San Marco drainage system pumps rain water right back into the Saint Johns, it would be counterproductive to try that in Riverside.
