HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – An engineering agency shared their findings from final hurricane season with Hillsborough County commissioners on Wednesday.
The workshop was a part of the county’s ongoing efforts to extend resilience for future storms.
Engineers mentioned they labored for months to investigate date from permits, studies, images, interviews with stakeholders, and after a sequence of conferences to assemble neighborhood suggestions.
The findings included what went proper, what went mistaken, and the way the county could possibly be extra resilient.
Total, engineers mentioned file rainfall quantities contributed to unprecedented flooding the county skilled.
Engineers praised the county for flood modeling, saying their efforts are essential to foretell what areas might flood.
Engineers discovered the county might enhance some stormwater property, reminiscent of ditches and pump websites.
“Inspection studies that they’re in good situation. The important thing problem is you do not actually have entry to most of the ditches,” the report mentioned.
County crews mentioned they’ve been laborious at work since final yr cleansing the county’s drainage system. The work contains:
- 81 miles of pipes
- 4,300 inlets
- 165 miles of ditches
Engineers additionally mentioned that pump stations are nearing the tip of their design life and really useful that pump stations must be evaluated and modernized.
“We will be speaking some extra about how we will proceed to enhance our stormwater methods, enhance our pump stations, enhance our upkeep of ditches, outfalls, and canals, and enhance our communication with our residents,” mentioned Hillsborough County Commissioner Harry Cohen.
The assessment comes as Hillsborough County is predicted to obtain $709 million in federal funding to help in restoration from earlier storms.
Commissioner Cohen mentioned the report would assist them develop a plan for the cash.
“Thankfully now we have some federal {dollars} that we’ve been awarded that we’re gonna have the ability to put towards this effort, and it’s very, essential that we be sure that we spend that cash properly and judiciously and do what we will to arrange for the storms of the long run,” mentioned Commissioner Cohen.
