Susan Manning remembers one particular day in the summer of 2008. "It would not stop raining, and raining, and raining."
Tropical Storm Fay dumped more than a foot of rain over the eastern part of Port St. Lucie.
“We looked outside and there were people in rowboats outside in the rain," recalled Manning on Monday.
Residents were prisoners in their own homes.
“We couldn’t get out of our house for two days. Finally some huge trucks came around but even then we couldn’t get out of the house because we didn’t have a big enough car," said Manning.
In Fay’s wake, a multi-year, $34 million construction project was undertaken. It's the Eastern Watershed Improvement Project or EWIP.
“A series of improvements. Built some drainage ponds, some stormwater treatment areas, interconnected them with some large pipes. Rebuilt our pump stations," said Public Works Director Jim Angstadt.
Completed in 2012, Angstadt says it has set a different standard when it comes to alleviating floodwaters.
“For basically a hundred year storm in that for that high a degree of intensity of rainfall, after 12 hours we should at least be able to drive through roads.”
