TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — The engineering company shared findings from its final hurricane season with Hillsboro County Commissioners Wednesday.
The workshop was part of the county’s continued efforts to increase resilience for future storms.
The engineer said he had worked for several months to analyze the dates from permissions, reports, photos and interviews with stakeholders after a series of meetings to gather community feedback.
The findings included what was right, what went wrong, and how the county was resilient.
Overall, the engineers said record rainfall contributed to the unprecedented flooding experienced.
The engineers praised the county for flood modeling, saying their efforts are important to predict which areas could be flooded.
Engineers have discovered that the county can improve stormwater assets such as ditches and pump sites.
“The inspection reports show that they are in good condition. The key challenge is that many of the grooves are in real access,” the report states.
County crews said they have been working hard since cleaning the county’s drainage system since last year. The task includes:
81 miles of pipe 4,300 inlets 165 miles of groove
The engineers also said the pump station was approaching the end of its design lifespan and recommended that the pump station should be evaluated and modernized.
“We’ll talk a little more about how we can improve stormwater systems, improve pump stations, improve ditches, runoffs and canal maintenance, and improve communication with residents,” said Hillsboro County Commissioner Harry Cohen.
This review is expected to receive $799 million in federal funds to help Hillsboro County recover from previous storms.
Commissioner Cohen said the report would help develop a money plan.
“Fortunately, we have some federal dollars awarded to be directed towards this effort, and it is very important that we make sure we use that money wisely and wisely and do what we can to prepare for the storms of the future,” Commissioner Cohen said.
