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Flooding frustrations continue in Lantana

Town officials say they'll keep pumping water for as long as needed
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Posted at 2:58 PM, Oct 27, 2020
and last updated 2020-10-27 17:37:22-04

LANTANA, Fla. — Frustrations continued in Lantana on Tuesday as water flooded many parts of the Sea Pines neighborhood for a third straight day.

The town and county have been working to pump water out, but neighbors want to know what's going to be done to prevent this from happening in the future.

Several inches of water still sit on top of the road near Katheryn DeFrancisco's house.

"There is a terrible smell of fish this morning," DeFrancisco said.

DeFrancisco lived in Sea Pines in 2014 when the neighborhood flooded, but now she feels this time, the flooding was worse and spread to more areas.

"What is the long term solution to this?" DeFrancisco said.

Town officials in Lantana said when the Florida Department of Transportation expanded I-95, it reduced the places for drainage water to go.

"We are going to have to do this right," said Councilwoman Karen lythgoe spoke.

Coincidentally, the town manager was meeting with FDOT to discuss the flooding from 2014 on Thursday.

Lythgoe said an item of discussion will be a change made in 2014 that allowed more water to flow to Lake Osborn that did not work last weekend.

"The problem with that, and it has been fine all this time, is this rain exceeded that capacity," Lythgoe said. "Everything we are permitted to do is done."

The town manager said they will work with FDOT to find the best solution for a long-term fix.

DeFrancisco said she hopes those fixes come soon.

"Fortunately there is no rain and that is our saving grace right now," DeFrancisco said.

The town of Lantana said they and the county will keep pumping water for as long as they need to. The meeting with FDOT is Thursday and it is not open to the public.