Fort Lauderdale Official Urges Rapid Fix to Worsening Flooding in South Florida

Worsening flooding from king tides and rising sea level has prompted one Fort Lauderdale city commissioner to draft a plan to raise roads, elevate seawalls and offer financial support for flood barriers on homes.

Commissioner Steve Glassman said his phone was blowing up in the last two weeks as king tide flooding hit streets that had never flooded before, closing access to homes and business, the South Florida Sun Sentinel and other news sites reported.

Glassman has asked city staff to come up with a framework within 90 days that could help alleviate the growing problem. Fort Lauderdale already is investing in extensive stormwater drainage and flood-mitigation programs, but the commissioner said those long-term projects need to be augmented with work that can have an immediate impact, the newspaper reported.

City staff are examining Glassman’s proposal and other ways to mitigate flooding, a spokesperson told the Sentinel.

The king tides are a regular occurrence in south Florida but they have worsened in recent weeks thanks to heavy rainfall, rising seas and offshore winds that pushed seawater into low-lying areas, weather and news reports have indicated. Flooding in early November was so severe that it forced the closure of a rehabilitation hospital in Melbourne, Florida.

Photo: Flooding from king tides and heavy rains in North Bay Village, near Miami, on Oct. 28. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)