Flooding in Steinhatchee

[thb]

Some of you may have seen this on one of the news channels but I will tell my tale of woe. It started raining on Thursday morning and did not stop until Sunday morning. Then it starts raining again on Sunday afternoon and finally stops Sunday night.

28+ inches of rain in total. My lake to the west of my house started to fill up from swamps to the west of us. Our lower garden area started to fill up and make another lake which it will do with really heavy rain. It keeps rising and rising and my well pump electrical boxes started getting close to the water level so I shut off power to my well at noon on Saturday. We had plenty of rain water for washing dishes and bathing. The lake rose a total of 8 ft at which point my shooting bench seat started to get wet and the ground water level got so high, the water started seeping into my basement. The lower garden lake and the main lake combined which has never happened in the past.

The road coming in here which I maintain had several wash outs but we got the big ones filled in yesterday morning with the john deere 110 loader backhoe. Road is still passable. Where the road turns to our driveways out to the west was underwater and still will be for several days. We do not need to use that section for egress.

We are praying the rain stops for a few days and the water levels continue to fall. Electrical controls on the pump seem to be above water level this morning so maybe I can turn the pump on later today.

No one has ever seen 28+ inches in 3 days here. Lots of areas flooded but as of last report the river has not flooded out those along its banks.

Still trying to get rid of the 1 inch of water which got into the basement which is 1440 sq ft. That is a lot of gallons.

FS17 build gets interrupted in more ways than one can imagine by forces of nature which we have no control over.

Regards
Tom in Steinhatchee

[piperdown]

Tom, stay safe and I hope the water recedes quickly!!
This year has been unreal with the amount of water most of the country has gotten.

[Jeff]

Tom, really sorry to hear about the flooding!! Stay safe and get that water out as soon as possible!! Jeff

[cape man]

Believe me...I feel your pain. We dodged the bullet on my property, but the community down stream on the Alafia had their road underwater for almost a full week, and that was two weeks after it had done the same thing. 28+ inches is a bunch! Thank goodness we didn't get that here!

Look on the bright side...you now know that if you put one foot of water in your basement you have stored 10,771 gallons

[Capt UB]

Three years ago when I was building a Spira boat, we had a hurricane getting close. I took the boat (hull was mostly done) off the strongback and laid it on the carport floor and tied it up to the house.... It was floating in my carport! only 2" of water during the storm!

Hope all ends up well for you and your family. Watch out for them snakes!!!

[cape man]

Her name is Hermine...



There's a 32" tall table somewhere underneath the boat!

[keysrat]

I was in Steinhatchee yesterday. The amount of water was ridiculous. We were checking on a friend's house. Had to cross through an area of road that was flooded by fast water. Their house was OK at that point, but the water was still rising with more heavy rain on the way.
God bless the folks living there and hoping they get through it OK.

[majorgator]

I have employees who live in Rosewood/Cedar Key area, and they can’t get out by car. Its still a big mess here where I’m at in High Springs. Just imagine if a real storm came in on the heels of this rain event

[thb]

Thanks for all the positive comments. Things are getting better. It finally stopped raining yesterday afternoon. Total has got to be over 30 inches at this point.

The folks along the river are flooded and my friend on Cooey's island took his wife out on a kayak so she could get to her car and go to work.

My lake is finally starting to recede and my lower garden area has gone down to the point where I could turn on my water pump. Yeah a hot shower was really nice last night.

My road coming in is still about 6-8 inches deep in spots but I could get out in my truck.

The water in the basement is no longer coming in and clean up and getting it out will commence more today. I took my bilge pump which I had not mounted yet in my FS17 and put it in the recessed floor sump and took one of FS17's batteries and pumped water into the washing machine sump barrel which gets pumped outside with a float switch controlled 110 volt submersible pump. Pushing water with a squeegie toward the floor sump is physical work but so far level is going down. We will get there.

Regards
Tom in Steinhatchee

[Jeff]

Tom, I hope things get better for you and all in your area soon!!! Terrible situation, Jeff