LAKE WORTH BEACH, Fla. — Being hurricane ready is much more than food and supplies for people living at the West Village Arts Lofts in Lake Worth Beach.
"We've lifted everything up off the floors we put all the furniture on stilts. We have shop vacs, mops, air blowers," said Marcele Bassett one of the loft residents who is preparing for flooding. "We're ready to try and save our property to the best of our ability."
This as the three units are known to flood and hurricane season potentially means major damage for him and his neighbors.
"It's scary because we don't know if we'll be able to weather the storm," said Bassett.
Some residents said flooding has caused up to $20,000 in damages. Now, some have spent up to $10,000 on flood barriers.
"The water had been coming up about 9 inches, so we had to build a sea wall around our place," said Joshua Diaz, a resident of the lofts who built a stone wall outside of his garage to keep the water out.
Preparing for flooding.
Residents said Lake Worth Beach officials are working on an exfiltration system and hired engineers.
"We're hopeful we'll be able to get through the hurricane season but most of the time we flood it's been your normal everyday storm," said Diaz.
Crews also passed out sandbags and cleaned out the drains as drainage issues appear to be the cause of the flooding.
"I do feel like they're making effort and we appreciate that we do appreciate it," said Diaz. "It's a bigger issue than our street. We would love to see the city fix the problem and fix it for everyone because we're not the only one."
Residents said they've also hired their own engineers and hope they can work together with the city to find a solution to the drainage.
"We've seen plenty of families in the area and their kids reaching into the drains during a large rain thinking it's clogged, trying to scoop out whatever is clogging it and there's water going into their homes," Diaz added.
