To help mitigate flooding in Edgewood, the city has removed an overgrowth of invasive trees that blocked the flow of water in Osceola Creek. Now crews are dredging 1,500 linear feet of the creek.

The $6.5 million project got underway last year and is nearing completion, the mayor said. The work is focused on a section of the creek that lies to the south of State Road 84 near Edgewood.

Last week, Sturman led an impromptu post mortem on the recent rainstorm.

“I feel for my neighborhood, because we always get the brunt of it,” Sturman said. “The two worst neighborhoods are Edgewood and River Oaks. Everybody’s putting fault on Fort Lauderdale leadership, but Oakland Park Boulevard at I-95 was under water. Brightline couldn’t go into Dade County. Aventura was flooded.”

Sturman asked Public Works Director Alan Dodd to talk about what went wrong and what went right.

Dodd told commissioners the city was somewhat caught off-guard because the weather forecasters didn’t predict all the rain that ended up falling.

“We knew going into that week that we were going to have heavy rain,” Dodd said. “And we were doing all the preparatory things we are supposed to do getting ready for the heavier rain. Our system is designed to handle about 3 to 3.5 inches of rain over a 24-hour period.”

Forecasters got it wrong

On Wednesday, June 12, the forecast called for 2 to 2.5 inches of rain over a 24-hour period, Dodd said. But that day, 9 to 11 inches of rain fell in different parts of the city over the course of about 12 hours.

“That is well beyond the capacity the stormwater system can handle,” Dodd said. “On Wednesday afternoon, we had already put contractors on notice and they were starting to deploy temporary pumps. And we were putting folks at risk, putting them out on the road where everybody else was trying to travel at the same time.”

Fort Lauderdale had 20 vacuum trucks on standby didn’t send them out “because it costs money” and the June 12 forecast only called for 2 to 2.5 inches of rain, Dodd said.

When it became apparent the forecast was wrong, the plan changed.

The next morning, on June 13, the city had 15 vacuum trucks and 15 pumps deployed to low-lying neighborhoods, Dodd told the commission.

Sturman had high praise for city staff, saying they did a great job addressing flooding and responding to residents.

“I know everybody’s frustrated, but I want to thank … Alan (Dodd), the police and fire department and particularly my staff. For 48 hours straight we didn’t get a wink of sleep.”

Not everyone thinks the city did such a great job.

Ted Inserra, president of the River Oaks Civic Association and one of four candidates challenging Sturman in the city’s upcoming November election, says the city should have deployed temporary pumps before the storm.

“They brought in the pumps after the storm was over,” Inserra said. “They should have been there before we got the flooding. We had water in houses. Sturman said he and his staff didn’t sleep for 24 hours. Neither did the residents who had water in their houses.”

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