The St. Johns River Water Management District, which encompasses parts of 18 central and northeastern Florida counties, said Tuesday Hurricane Irma dropped more than two trillion gallons of water across its service area.
That fact was presented in a report outlining last month’s hydrological conditions, flood control system and the district’s response during the storm.
“Storms like Hurricane Irma bring a lot of rain in a short amount of time and it’s critical the components of the district’s flood control system be balanced to mitigate flooding where possible,” said St. Johns River Water Management District Executive Director Dr. Ann Shortelle. “Our staff did an outstanding job of responding to cities and counties requests for needs during storm recovery.”
The district report concluded that September saw unusually heavy rain and that a powerful nor’easter storm that hit the area hours before the hurricane exacerbated what was already a dangerous situation. Districtwide, the average rainfall from Hurricane Irma alone was just more than 10 inches.
Meanwhile in Northeast Florida, Duval, Putnam and Clay Counties were drenched with more than 13 inches of total rain.
The combination of Irma and the nor’easter created flooding in parts of Jacksonville that surpassed records set more than 170 years ago.
Reporter Ryan Benk can be reached at rbenk@wjct.org, at (904) 358 6319 or on Twitter @RyanMichaelBenk.
