Estero street flooded 72 hours takes kids 10 minutes to clear

ESTERO, Fla.- Three kids living in a neighborhood with flooded streets solved the problem in just 10 minutes.

For the past 72 hours, a street in the Fountain Lakes community has been under more than 6 inches of water.

Cars were nearly flooding their engines trying to get home. It wasn’t until Monday, when three siblings went outside to play in the water that the flooded street dried up.

Three kids, six hands and 10 minutes is all it took for the Delaney’s to become neighborhood heroes.

“I knew there was a drain right there so I was feeling around and I was like, ‘oh it’s clogged,'” said Jake Delaney who lives in the community.

At just 12 years of age, Jake Delaney and his sisters figured out the problem.

“Now all the water is getting lower and lower every couple of minutes,” said Jake. “I need to do it again. Later tonight, it should be gone.”

The kids found one drain, then another.

“We found four drains and now the water has gone down,” said Morgan Delaney.

If you ask Jake, his help is “saving the day.”

The flooded street in the Fountain View neighborhood has been a dangerous flood zone for three days. Some cars braved the deep waters while others tried to find a way around it.

“I can’t go through this,” said RN Debra Lyons who was trying to get to a patient. “I am going through the back and will try to get inside some how.”

Neighbors say for three days no one came to their rescue.

“I think the county should of come out and helped,” said Jake. Instead, it took just three 12-year-old kids to solve the problem for the whole neighborhood.

Lee County officials say because it is a private, gated community, the county does not maintain Fountain Lakes. The Department of Transportation crews did drive through the neighborhood to evaluate the situation and work with the HOA.

A word of caution, kids should not play around drains. Always make sure an adult is watching you or leave it up to professionals. In some cases, you can get your hand stuck or as in one case that happened in Southwest Florida, you can get sucked into the drain.