Flood Prevention

Myrna Pavlach - Private Citizen
Mike Gambino - Section Chief of Miami-Dade County's Water Management Division/DERM
Joseph Jean-Baptiste - Intergovernmental/Outreach Specialist with the South Florida Water Management District
Charles Scott - Lead Communications Specialist with the South Florida Water Management District

Myrna Pavilach, Private Citizen began the meeting with an emotional rendering of what she and her neighbors experienced during the October 3^rd, 2000 flood, called "The No Name Storm". Myrna Pavilach was on the Mayor's Task Force, in 1982, when the first Hurricane Manuals were written. As a member of the Disaster Board, Myran's main question was one of when are the improvements and maintenance projects going to be completed. She said, "The October 3^rd flood was an awfulness, because we were not notified. I talked to Meteorologist Bob Sofer about this. I said, where were you? He said, 'We couldn't know that it was going to happen.'

"They couldn't notify us? I woke up at two o'clock in the morning, a cat on the hood of our car trying not to drown. Water was from there, straight across right through the houses." She spoke of flooded cars and older appliances not covered by insurance or FEMA help. There was a neighbor's air-conditioner floating down the street, brand new, wasn't fastened down enough. Another lost his medical plaques and Classic 78's records. She spoke of the slime from the canal and septic tank water and the smell. She lamented the wife's fear for an invalid husband alone, in the dark, with flood waters coming in...whom she could not get to because of the storm water flooding.

Myrna thanked Miami-Dade County Commissioner Rolle, "Now, I must give credit to Commissioner Rolle. He came with his people to our street. They walked to every house asking, 'Are you OK?, what do you need?, Do you know how to fill out the FEMA Form?. We're talking about this is North Miami, guys."

Joseph Jean-Baptiste and Charles Scott from the South Florida Water Management District gave the big picture, as viewed at the State level. The South Florida Water Management is a State Agency overseeing water resources throughout the southern half of the state of Florida. They obviously work closely with County Level agencies throughout South Florida. They protect, manage, improve and balance all aspects of a complex ecosystem, that includes:

• the amount of water we have,
• the quality of that water,
• and the systems that effect floods and droughts.

We get our drinking water from underground reservoirs, called "aquifers". These reservoirs are supplied by two sources. During the rainy summer months, storm water soaks down into the aquifers. The second resupply system works because the State of Florida begins at a higher "above-sea-level" and gradually gets lower and lower, until most of South Florida is only 3 feet above Sea Level. At the Lake Okeechobee area, the altitude is 30 feet above Sea Level. As water travels downhill, during the dry season, Lake Okeechobee feeds a series of natural and manmade canals that eventually refill the aquifers.

The natural canals are what feed the Everglades ecosystem called "The River of Grass". The manmade canals used today were built in 1948, to control flooding and maintain the level of water supply for a population of 2 million by the year 2000. Today the system is serving 7 million. Excess population sucks the aquifers dry and a much greater rate than the system was designed to accommodate. So, while we are in the Rainy Season and the aquifers are "full" of storm water, Lake Okeechobee is still low. It was at it's lowest around April, when it was down to 8.9 ft, were it should be 15 to 18 ft. Today there is about 11.98 close to 12ft., but that is still too low.

Joseph Jean Baptiste said, "Now, flooding. We do have a flooding situation but ladies and gentleman, I'm going to tell you candidly, getting rid of flooding is like getting rid of the earthquake in California, or the cold snaps in Canada, Chicago and New York. We'll always have it, however, what we trying to do is trying to alleviate the situation. We're going to do the best we can and try to alleviate the dreadful situation for all of us. All of us homeowners."

The No Name Storm of 2000 came in October, at the end of the Rainy Season, when the aquifers were full and Lake Okeechobee was still low. It rained in the wrong place, with the result of massive flooding in numerous, rather small areas of South Florida. The flood waters had to be pumped out to the ocean to the tune of 10.7 billion gallons of water. And, the drought simply got worse.

Every person in South Florida must begin to understand the delicate balance of our ecological systems. The South Florida Water Management District's, Department of Public Relations's Charles Scott focused on what must be addressed by each citizen. He discussed a number of local drainage systems that he had found blocked by accumulated debris. Local residents must know where their drainage systems are, inspect the drain openings and canals, cleaning up what they can and notifying authorities when there are real problems.

Mr. Scott provided a simple explanation for what the real problem is, "If you live West of US1, you live in a flood zone. You're living in what used to be the Old Everglades. You're living in what they call a "basin". The highest points in all of South Florida is along US1. That's why US1 is built the way its built. Anything west of that is actually in the Old Everglades. US1 was the eastern lip of the basin, or big ditch that holds water for the Everglades."

During the building boom of the 1970-80's construction was allowed to move into this basin. The only way a home owner or potential home owner can assess the real threat of flooding is to have an Elevation Survey conducted. While now required for all new buildings in Miami-Dade, this information should be known by every homeowner.

Once you know the actual potential for flood, prepare and participate in the process of enhancing the existing systems and protecting yourself and property from flood waters. If you have a septic tank, have it drained, at least once every 2 years, before the Rainy Season begins. Plant trees, shrubs, vines, flowers, and other plants that can survive flood conditions and can thrive in dry conditions ("xeroscaping").

Remain vigilant of canals and flood areas and keep the South Florida District Phone Number available, especially if you are along a canal. The canal gates are electronically controlled from Palm Beach Headquarters. If the canal is rising and the gate is closed call 1-800-432-2055 24 hours per day/365 days a year.

Involve yourself in all aspects of your community, from watching your local drain, to demanding responsible government policies. Ecological programs must be embraced, not to save the Everglades, but to save your own home. Drying up part of the Everglades to allow development was a mistake that must be corrected. Become involved citizens and support those politicians who understand the complexities of our ecological/economic realities. Stay on top of what is happening, demand improvements and logical building.

Mr. Scott promised to return on a regular basis to provide the most recent information and to work closely with the citizens of North Miami, to enhance their ability to understand and participated in the process of returning parts of the Everglades to wetlands, to support dredging and canal maintenance programs, and to promote new ongoing or proposed programs. http://sfwmd.gov

Mike Gambino and DERM: Mike Gambino has been with Miami-Dade County's Department of Environmental Resource Management (DERM) for 16 years. He had a slide show and covered a great deal of information.

I'm Mike Gambino I'm with Dade County DERM. I've been with DERM for 16 years. It's always been an interesting job trying to protect our resources. I've been doing flood planning management, storm water management for the past 10 years. I was asked to come talk about 4 basic topics and that's where I I'm going to show my little presentation here. There are some major projects going on at the end I'll get into. The four things I was asked to talk about are; why does it flood so much down here?, who's canals are who's, who does maintenance, what are flood zones and why are they important, and what's the county doing about flooding?. So that's what this is about.

OK, What's the problem in South Florida? Many people don't understand how our canal systems work, and where we get our drinking water. Does anybody not know where we get our drinking water from? Has anybody ever heard of an aquifer? We get our drinking water from a water storage area that's natural right below the ground surface.

The other problems we have in South Florida are that we have low elevations, we don't have any hills, mountains, and everything's flat. Add to that this ground water that's right below the ground surface and you can understand when it rains we're going to have some problems. What are some of the other challenges we have or what are some of the things we've done in the past to create problems?

Development hurts us. Why does development hurt us? It creates more impervious areas. Houses, parking lots, sidewalks, streets, those are all impervious areas that reduce our areas where storm water can infiltrate through the ground. Storm water is our recharge for our aquifer where we get our drinking water. So another process that I hope you would understand, in the rainy season that's how our water supply gets recharged, through rainfall percolating through the ground.

In the dry season, we're such a huge county, with such a large population and we start sucking that water dry. The ground water gets lower. So, to quote "hundred years storms" that Myrna didn't want to hear about, Irene and the No-Name storm of October 3, both occurred in October. Our rainy season is from May to October. Guess what? It was the height of our rainy season, ground water was at its highest.

Anyway, other things that present these challenges are the minimization of swales. Have any of you ever lived in Hialeah, we like to use Hialeah as a negative example. For whatever reasons, they like to pave over their swale areas. Does everybody know what a swale is? That area was designed to capture storm water and allow it to infiltrate. Another one my environmental people like to put in here but still a little shaky, I'm not convinced on this one, is the decrease of urban trees. We need trees in our neighborhoods, we need trees in our community. Some people seem to think tree help soak up storm water through there root system. I haven't seen it proven but...

Ok, so all these factors lead to heavy rain events in October and hundred year flood events. Now I'll tell you a typical way our street system and our road systems are designed. Typical street designs and your side streets are for a five year storm, right? This is your typical storm water management system. Here's your ground water table I was talking about, here's your streets, here's your swales, and here are your houses. I guess you can see what's coming, when it rains storm water should drain into those swales, which is an area in between the end of the street and the sidewalk designed to infiltrate storm waters. It's suppose to be sodded and stay sodded. The homeowner is responsible maintenance, but he really doesn't own it. The county or the city can come in later and put more drainage in or put whatever they want there.

During a normal rainfall event, your rainwater drains into your swales, and you are able to go onto your street without a problem. The storm water ponds into your swales. You might have to step into water in your swales but at least you get to your house which is still dry.

With a five year storm or your ten year storm, the water levels are a little higher. This is a higher volume of storm water coming in. So now the system isn't able to handle it as well, you're going to have some ponding in the street. You're still able to get to where you want to go.

Now you have a twenty five year storm. Now the storm water is covering the street, you've got ponding in your swales and certain flooding of your area, but it shouldn't and I quote "shouldn't" flood your homes. Here I am trying to show you the different types of storms, the different frequency of these storms, the heavier storm, this is what we're leading to. That is why we flood in South Florida.

What we need to address now, is the canal systems that aid this basic, fundamental Storm Water Management System.

These are the basic types of canals. Primary canals, are operated by the South Florida Water Management District but owned by the Army Core of Engineers who set standards and regulations. There's a whole schedule of elevations for their primary canal as to when they raise and lower these canals.

Secondary canals are ours, Miami Dade Public Works.

And Private, You might have some canals in the city of North Miami or in other cities that are private or municipally owned. There aren't many but there are some.

What do these primary canals do? Primary canals, as I mentioned before, they function for water supply, they also drain areas. Environmental concerns which are: endangered species act in some areas, and salt water intrusion in other areas. At each of the primary canals that are in Dade-County, where those canals meet the ocean, there's something called solidity controlled structures. If you allow salt water to migrate into this canal, that salt water will impact our ground water, which is what we drink. So that's another consideration that the District has, as to how high to make those canal elevations, to not allow that salt water to come in. That's why we have saltwater intrusion considerations mentioned earlier.

Now you have our secondary canals that are county canals and some of the city canals that feed into those primary canals. One analogy I like to use is a person, you have these large arteries, primary arteries, then you have these small veins that feed into the artery. The veins have to be clear, the arteries have to be clear for the blood to keep pumping through your system. What happens if there's a clog somewhere, person dies? And I guess in those last two storms we all kinda died. I guess my point is, our secondary canals connect to the primary canals. If the primary canals are up here, secondary canals pumps can push all the water we can by gravity and nothing's going to happen. Another factor in why we've had this major flood.

What kind of maintenance do we do to keep our canals clear and working? Basically chemical treatment. You have growths on the expanse of your canals and you have a lot of growth inside your canal, so they go out there with chemicals. Herbicides, biocides, they have to be licenced by the Federal government to apply these, they have to know what they're doing.

Boats with a big fork underneath actually scoops up this vegetation and deposits it on banks. So that's mechanical. Then you have basically mowing and trimming you're canal banks.

One more type that you have. And I want to throw this in there just to let you know, Obstructions/Emergencies, our public works department has a schedule, has a plan for hurricanes or other disasters where they have set spots that they'll go out to and check for obstructions after disasters. And they won't respond to complaints or handle emergencies before and after that, up to a certain point, if there's a hurricane threatening, if it gets like 50 on 25 mile per hour winds, nobody goes out then, or any heavy equipment. But I wanted to throw in there that they do respond to complaints after a storm to remove obstruction.

I contacted our public works people to find out what we do in North Miami. From what I gather, we have two canals, or one is a ditch, one is a canal. Little Arch Creek and Seaboard Acres. According to my staff at Public Works, they check pumps stations weekly and the ditches are chemically maintained generally five times a year.

I was also asked to explain to you what the flood zones are, why they are important, and how they tie into this whole thing.

The flood zone is a special flood hazard area. That means that the Federal Emergency Management Agency or FEMA has determined that what they call their 100 year storm That's a storm that has 1% chance of occurring at any 1 year, would inundate an area that's a special flood hazard area. And they also usually 90% of the time come up with a number of how high that storm would innovate your property.

So if you have a flood zone, if you're AE, there should be some kind of number behind it, like 9. And that would be AE9, that means in that 100 year storm your property would expect a flood of 9 feet. Why is this important? Well, first of all just to let you know 80% of Dade County is in a flood zone. Most of North Miami is also.

Here is another thing I want to explain to people, I want you to understand. I you see in your insurance policy that you're in an X zone or if you call the city or county and you're in an X zone doesn't mean you're out of the woods. FEMA always stretches this as well. There could be local conditions and I'm sure you all know that by now. There could be local conditions, local rain events, different environmental factors, or topographical factors that come into play that could make you susceptible to a major storm. And I Think we found that out. Those two storms, Irene and the No Name Storm, they did not discriminate between flood zones and not. They did in the city but not in the county. A lot of X zones were heavily impacted by those two storms.

Why is this important? When you get these brochures there should be your flood zone on there. On mine, they're right above your address. Why is this important? You need two things to figure out if you're more susceptible to flooding. You need to know what the flood zone is, what I just explained, and you need to know what your house is, in relation to that number. For instance let's use, you find out you're in a flood zone of AE10.

You need one of these documents. Has anybody seen one of these. Nobody seen these huh? Ok, Very important document as a home owner. I recommend you get one, about $100 to $150. Call a surveyor in the phone book. With this information you could figure out your potential liability. There are some numbers down here where they're going to tell you how high your house is. So now you've got the flood zone the city told you AE10. If you see that your house is 8ft., 7ft. That's a 3ft difference for that 100 year storm. You want to start thinking about what you're going to do to protect yourself cause you're 3ft. low.

The other part of this is called the 50% Rule and involves substantial damaged homes or substantially improved homes. Hurricane Andrew shows up and your house is damaged. The city would send out inspectors to verify what percentage of damage did you incur. If it's over 50% you're going to have to prove to the city that you're at that 10 foot elevation that I was mentioning. So what is the city going to ask you for? Or in our case this is how we do it. There going to say, " do you have an elevation certificate proving to me that you're a 10, if you don't have it then go get one. Then when you bring it back and it says 8, unfortunately FEMA requires you're going to have to elevate that house to 10. That's why this 50% rule is so important. That's why it's important that you know what your house is in relationship to the flood zone. For the future, get some future liability. Lot of people don't care, people say "It won't hit me; it'll never happen again"if you feel that way fine but I'm just trying to show you how to plan ahead a little and be prepared.

(Question: Let me ask you this, is that 50% a one time deal or is it accrued. ) Very good question. 50% is at the time it happens. In our code we have a 6 month window. Once we examine it, or this also includes substantial improvement. Let's say you want to add a bedroom and bathroom. We would take the value of your house, we'd estimate across the board value of doing that addition, and let's say it's 20%. We'd say OK you can do it, you don't have to elevate that addition. Now you come in within 6 months and you want to do more now you're going to have a problem, now you're going to have to elevate the rest of your construction. We wouldn't make you do your house just for an improvement. That's our policy. Hopefully other cities don't do that but ....

There is a 6 month window unless you're in a V zone. That's a high velocity zone, those are areas near the coast, the ocean, or the bay. I see you have a real small VE area in the city. That is usually tracked in our case and in Unincorporated case over a five year period. Did you guys know that we tracked it for five years? OK there's also a program associated with National Flood Insurance Program that helps you as citizens, it's called Community Rating System (CRS). It's explained in this brochure very well. It gives you guys Flood Insurance Discounts for the City of North Miami improving your flood protection initiatives. The city is one of the best I've got to say in the whole country doing this now. They just achieved a level of 5. That means you guys are getting a 25% discount on Flood Insurance Policies. That is major. Anyway, Why I was saying this is, one of the things they can do to more strictly regulate new construction is to require a longer tracking period for these improvements in damaged structures.

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