SWFL residents taking extra steps to prepare for potential flooding

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One year ago, Southwest Florida residents received an unprecedented amount of rain in a short period of time, leading to mass flooding in many areas.

Bob Marnocha, who lives just off of Kimset Parkway in Cape Coral, says this time last year the road around his house was under two to three feet of water.

“I’ve never seen this much rain in that short of time and I was just thinking well where is all of this rain going to go,” Marnocha said.

In just a few days, the city saw about 20 inches of rain, which left storm drains fighting to drain all the flood waters.

This year, Marnocha isn’t taking any chances with potential flooding and prepared for any possible bad weather by making the necessary upgrades to his home.

“I planned a little better towards if there was going to be another hurricane. I upgraded my shutters… Generator, shelfstable food stuff like that,” Marnocha said.

In terms of what the city is doing to prevent flooding, a spokesperson told WINK News that there isn’t any feasible action that can take place to prevent flooding.

The city did clean out a few drains in the Chiquita Boulevard and Trafalgar Parkway area that had blockage from trees and other debris. The city is also conducting daily storm drain inspections and clearing out weirs on a weekly basis in order to prevent mass flooding again.

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