ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. — The intersection of Savona and California Boulevards are no strangers to severe flooding.
Some local businesses, like Estella’s Pizzeria, are just yards away from the flood prone areas and employees told WPTV’s Tyler Hatfield it’s hurting their business.
Store manager Nicole Erickson said after a heavy rainfall, the intersection becomes a waterway.
“I saw somebody kayaking down the road,” said Erickson. “You would have thought they were on the river or something.”
For Erickson, it’s becoming frustrating.
“This is killing our business,” she said. “This is the first year that I’ve seen it this bad.”
Erickson told WPTV the severe flooding makes deliveries almost impossible. Employees and customers are also stranded at times.
“People were here till after nine o'clock at night, after we closed, waiting for the water to recede," she said. "Or finding an alternate route home, or taking rides with other people, because they had to leave their cars until the next day."
Erickson said take-out meals are sometimes left untaken.
“That's product we've already made for them, and now they can't make it here, and we're throwing stuff away," she said. "We're losing money on the products we've made."
WPTV’s Tyler Hatfield took Erickson’s concerns to the city of Port St. Lucie.
A spokesperson said they are working for solutions, writing the following in a statement:
The Public Works Department maintains swale drainage, rights-of-ways, waterways and City-owned canals throughout the year. New projects are completed annually to support and enhance the drainage system, preparing the City for heavy rain events and storms. We take a short- and long-term planning approach to stormwater management that allows us to continuously identify opportunities for improvement, prioritize them and undertake them.
That includes improvements along this section of the California Boulevard corridor. The city’s public works department has prioritized actively exploring options to mitigate flooding in the near term, while developing longer-term solutions.
But Erickson doesn’t think it’s enough.
“I absolutely don't think they're doing enough,” she said. “They told my boss, ‘We're working on it. We got three different projects we're working on.’ But [they’ve] been saying this for years."
