- Cars, streets, and homes were flooded almost one month ago in Southwest Tallahassee.
- A neighborhood walk with city leaders comes after a meeting in the Jake Gaither community center in April.
- Watch the video above to hear from city leaders and neighbors to see what has to be done.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT
Nearly a month after historic flooding in Southwest Tallahassee, neighbors here are walking city leaders through the damage searching for a solution.
I'm Terry Gilliam your southwest Tallahassee neighborhood reporter. I walked with those neighbors Thursday.
The water might be gone, but they tell me a lot of work still has to be done. It's been nearly a month since 7 inches of rain led to feet of standing water in Southwest Tallahassee.
WATCH NEIGHBORHOOD REPORTER TERRY GILLIAM'S REPORT ON THE FLOOD:
That water flooded streets, cars and homes here. Now, that water is gone, but the memory of the disaster is still fresh in neighbors' minds here.
"I'm responsible for doing what I can for the neighborhood and for my neighbors." That's President of the Jake Gaither neighborhood, Willie Whiting Jr.
"We're flooded in this area, and we haven't gotten into hurricane season yet, but right now if we were to get a rain like just had a month or so ago… this whole area will be flooded."
I was there Thursday when neighbors met with city leaders about the problem. They're on a mission to make sure this doesn't happen again.
"We're going to stick a shovel in the ground, we're getting something done about this… time is out, this has been going on for a while, but time is out. The commissioners are on board to get something done in this neighborhood."
The walk follows a neighborhood meeting with leaders just a few weeks ago.
I asked Commissioner Diane William Cox what are the next steps for solving some of the flooding issues here in the Jake Gaither neighborhood.
"What we're doing is we are preparing for hurricanes. We know June 1 is the beginning of hurricane season, so what we're doing is gathering info from residents. This weather event was unlikely but gave us an opportunity to see what would happen. We're now looking at those issues and trying to see what we can do to alleviate some of those problems," said Commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox.
The flash flooding on April 10th and 11th isn't the first time the water has come up so high so quickly.
"This is not a new issue. It's just that because so much rain came at such a short period of time so quickly. It raised a level of awareness for our neighbors and ourselves," Williams-Cox added.
For now, neighbors like Whiting and others say showing pictures aren't enough and having face to face interactions with city leaders to show their problems are the best way to solving severe weather issues. "I believe that we're headed in the right direction."
Neighbors in the Jake Gaither community also tell me that they do have flood insurance just a day after the city announcedpolicy holders will get a discount on premiums going forward.
