Last Updated: 11:46 p.m.
Note: the latest story and updates are available here.
A sudden rain event that dropped up to 4 inches caused brief flooding in scattered parts of Palm Coast late this afternoon, and has left at least two streets closed until later this evening–Barrington Drive and a small segment of Woodhaven Drive, Palm Coast Fire Chief Mike Beadle said.
Specifically, the area around 19 Woodhaven Drive was under water because a nearby canal was overflowing, and debris was floating on the roadway. The Palm Coast Fire Department was at the scene at 7:30 p.m.
Possibly worsening conditions were expected late tonight. At 9:42 p.m., the National Weather Service issued the second flood warning of the day for northeast Flagler, including Palm Coast. The warning was triggered by an area of heavy rainfall moving west across Palm Coast and the Espanola area–the same region that received the brunt of the rain in late afternoon. Additional rainfall of possibly 2 to 3 inches was expected to worsen the situation, according to the Weather Service in Jacksonville.
The National Weather Service had extended the latest flood warning to 1:45 a.m. Saturday. Palm Coast residents were receiving Code Red alerts of the flood warning, as they had earlier in the day. At 11 p.m., thunderstorms were rolling through Palm Coast as the weather service announced rainfalls so far of 4 to 8 inches in the region.
At 11 p.m. Friday, FPL was reporting small power outages affecting fewer than 100 customers in the F Section of Palm Coast. Later, FPL reported additional power outages of similar size in the W Section.
At 9 p.m., Flagler County’s Emergency Operations Center issued a summary of the situation and noted that it was deactivating EOC until 7 a.m. Saturday. The summary indicated no state of emergency, no injuries, and no flooding of homes, but cautioned of more rain on the way. The report was issued before the later flood warning was triggered. See the full report below the images at the foot of the article.
Just before 8 p.m., Flagler County Emergency Management’s Jennifer Stagg provided the following statement: “The following roads have reported issues through Dispatch and the Emergency Operations Center. It should be noted this list includes roads that range anywhere from affected with flooding to impassable & blocked by barricades/first responders: Wellstone Dr., Woodshaw Lane, Woodside Dr., Burroughs Dr., Bird of Paradise, Burning Sands, Barley Lane, Barrington Drive, Woodshire, Woodstone and Woodhaven.”
The last four streets were declared impassable.
“Do not drive down flooded streets,” Kevin Guthrie, Flagler County’s Emergency Management director, urged. “We are having a huge problem with people driving on flooded streets.” When drivers do so, the vehicle cuts off, or it creates a wake and threatens people’s houses with water incursions.
The Birchwood Canal along Bird of Paradise has also been a concern.
But damage has been minimal and no injuries related to flooding have been reported, though lightning struck a house and triggered a house fire in the P Section, but that incident was reportedly minor. Separately, a person was struck by lightning.
A flash-flood warning remained in effect for northeast Flagler County until 7:30 p.m. It was issued at close to 5 p.m.
Beadle, who was assessing conditions in the B-Section just before 7 p.m., said Barrington and Woodhaven may be open by 8 p.m., absent more downpours. “We don’t know of any structures that have water in them, nobody’s been injured that we know of,” Beadle said, and no rescues had to be performed, though firefighters did assist some people out of vehicles that were in impassable roads.
“We have a lot of roads with water over them but we’re not getting inundated with phone calls,” Beadle said, and some ancillary roads may also have excess water. The traffic light at Parkview and Belle Terre Parkway was out as of 7 p.m.
“We are doing emergency sandbagging on a case-by-case basis, that’s being handled through the City of Palm Coast Public Works,” Guthrie said. “We’re not setting up a central point of distribution,” but when people call with concerns, Public Works evaluates and handles it.
The county’s Emergency Operations Center is this evening staffed by three people, including Guthrie, and is monitoring the situation. More rain is expected, but likely not as heavy as this afternoon, Guthrie said.
Bob Pickering, a weather specialist with Flagler County Emergency Management, had been in contact with the National Weather Service in Jacksonville, which, Pickering said, showed precipitations on its radar of 3 to 4 inches over the county, and up to 5 in ches in parts. Local weather spotters reported to Pickering precipitations of over 3 inches “in a very short period of time.”
Just before 5 p.m., Emergency Management reported flooding over western parts of Palm Coast, the National Weather Service reported in its flood warning, with the heaviest rainfall occurring from State Road 100 to Palm Coast Parkway.
“You get this phenomena called convergence,” Pickering said, where elements in the atmosphere collide and “squeeze out the moisture. It can cause torrents of rain” in a very short span of time. “The conditions will favor those types of things happening any time through the weekend and into next week, you just can’t pinpoint when the next one will happen,” Pickering said, or where.
Beadle said drivers have been getting stranded by attempting to drive around emergency vehicles, not realizing that the emergency vehicles may be there for a reason. He cautions against that.
Do not drive your vehicle into areas where the water covers the roadway. The water depth may be too great to allow your car to cross safely. Move to higher ground.
Status Report Flood Emergency Palm Coast
Honky Tonk says
I like the last picture, caption should read “Insurance payoff here I come!”
Larry says
Its flooding so bad in the “W” section, the Armadillo’s are wearing arm float’s .
AceDeadEyeJohnson says
I have lived in the “B” section for 25 years……weathered a few hurricanes!!!! But have never seen this stagnant build up of water?????? With such little rain??? Palm coast water drainage totally blew it at there Bird of Paradise cross over and there 95 cross over….the city will not be getting my $11.65 “STORM WATER” fee anymore…..and I would like some GD answers……..
PC gardener says
With so little rain?! We got at least 10 inches in the northern P’s, and don’t forget, there has been lots of rain all summer long, so the water table was already pretty high. We’ve been in Florida 11 years and never saw so much rain over a summer. The super heavy rains of ’08 followed a pretty bad drought, so the water tables were low.
I/M/O says
Mom always told us “Never buy a home at the bottom of a hill. But a home toward the top of the hill.”
Nikia says
Do not try to drive through flooded roads people!
m&m says
I live in the W section by the golf coures and my rain gauge had 14.3 inches.
confidential says
Our drainage system not working as supposed and originally intended by ITT development. Other than wasting big dollars giving impact fees for water, sewer and drainage to big developers and their share holders in places like Palm Harbor/Island LLC and Town Center, etc. What about using our utility reserves and the religiously paid drainage fees in our utility monthly bills, to improve our drainage system to prevent these floods?
In the F section says
My rain gauge measured 10.74 inches
Downtown says
Who’s going to be fired from the City of PC for creating this mess in the W section of the city? Earlier this year the city dug out the swells throughout the W section and put new sod down. Prior to this there were several small sections on some streets that did’nt drain well. But even the four storms of 2004 did’nt cause flooding like this. Fact is the swell repair done by the city earlier this year was a farce. Only the top layer of sod was removed and then resodded, so no gain was made to the depth or sloop of the swell. It seemed that the whole operation was to spend money, keep people employed and stop the complaints from a few that had problems with drainage in front of their homes. This rain storm has proved my point. For the first time we have suffered wide spread flooding in the W section where the swells were just repaired. Other parts of the city where no swell work has been done did’nt have flooding like this. Go figure! Leave the swells alone, Go build another bike path or plant more trees. But leave the swells alone. It’s clear that no one in the city government knows crap about proper drainage and swell maintance.
anonymous says
About three years ago my street in the R section flooded badly after a large rainfall. Two years ago, the city re-did the swales in the area and there has been no flooding in the area over the last few days. Whatever they did here, it worked.
person in the e section says
From what I can see the e section looks to be ok no flooding at least in the front half of e section what sections are flooding other then w and b
Lane Shippy says
The problem is that Palm Coast has inadequate infrastructure, so on top of flooding, we can expected to be sprayed with more cancer and developmental problem causing chemicals to “control” the increase in mosquitoes we will experience.
In addition, as the population continues to increase in Palm Coast, this problem with the pep tanks and sewer water will only get worse. No one is talking about the backed up sewer water and pep tanks following this rain.
What a mess… I am ashamed to say I live in Palm Coast. This should be a lesson. Do not drain wet lands and build cities in their place.
Palm Coast has huge infrastructure, green water, and health problems, and someone should call a town hall meeting, so we can discuss and change the course our failing city before Forbes magazine encourages more business here.
One final note, parents… do not let your children play in the contaminated water flowing in the swales. It is contaminated with hazardous bacteria and chemicals from mosquito and yard pesticides and fertilizers.
carl says
I guess that new weir they built which is no more then a dam with a culvert pipe in the middle , if they done it correct like the ones ITT put in , with 4 foot holes that open to let water flow faster threw to other canal systems instead of a 18 inch culvert pipe, you probably wouldn`t have had the flooding , but hey their friends got the work and they save money, they need to use all the money they take from customers that pay for swail maintenance and actually do the work ….every where you look there are swails just full of water ,the cable company dug them up to lay cable but no one made sure they had the pitch to run down hill towards the drains , a lot of peoples culvert pipes are full of dirt because they left them too high before laying sod , and digging a few retention ponds up by Byrd of Paradise wouldn`t hurt either , common sense people , if you take money to maintain the swails , then maintain them !!!!!