Lake Okeechobee levels showing improvement

Lake Okeechobee water levels have topped the ten foot mark and that's good news for the fishing and tourism industry in the area.

"Well, we live in South Florida, and we've never been here. We decided to come up, my family is here, visiting from Spain," says Yolanda Suarez, who's visiting from Miami. "We came to see what Lake Okeechobee is all about...it's very pretty."

At the height of the recent drought, lake levels were so low, the surrounding canals were impassable in many places, and the lake itself looked more like swamp land.

For Jason Ferrell, of Eagle Bay Airboat Rides, the canals surrounding the lake are the lifeblood of his business.

"Right now it's a little too shallow to have customers in here with us. It's too dangerous for boats to try and pass," he says. "We're still here, and we're still open. That's the big thing. They're under the perception that when the lake's dry, there's nothing to do around here."

The return of the rain has Ferrell going with the flow once again, and he's hopeful there will be more stormy waters ahead.

"We could lose up to a tenth of an inch every day, with no rain, just from evaporation," says Ferrell. "What we're getting now will maintain and give us a little bit of water, but if you go for two or three days without rain, you've lost a quarter to a half an inch. If all you've got that week is a quarter or half-an-inch, it's just holding its own."

The slow increase in the water level is enough that Ferrell will reopen his tours of Eagle Bay next week.