DAYONA BEACH, Fla. — Residents in Daytona Beach’s Midtown and Fairway Estates neighborhoods got tough news this week. The Army Corps of Engineers says there is no affordable way to stop the chronic flooding that has plagued these areas for decades.
After a two-year study, engineers told city leaders that any solution would cost far more than it would save. For every $1 of benefit, it would cost $10 to fix the problem.
Mayor Derrick Henry called the findings heartbreaking.
“This is not the news that we wanted, but we have to be able to process what our options are and what they are saying,” Henry said.
The neighborhoods sit in a bowl-shaped area. When it rains hard, water rushes in but has nowhere to go. The Nova and Navy canals cannot handle the flow, and drainage pipes do not slope enough to push water out fast.
Engineers looked at big fixes like raising canal banks or building levees. But those projects could cost up to $200 million. That is far more than the homes and businesses at risk.
The most cost-effective option now is for the city to buy out the most flood-prone properties. But that would not help hundreds of other homes that also flood.
For Lucille Bennett, who has lived in Midtown for 68 years, the news is not a surprise.
“When you look out the door, you don’t see nothing but water. You don’t see no traces of land, no flowers, no grass, no nothing,” Bennett said.
Bennett has watched floodwaters rise again and again. She says she cannot get flood insurance because no company will cover a property that floods this often.
“So we lost. So this is nothing. We have nothing and nothing. That’s just what it is,” Bennett said.
With hurricane season approaching, city leaders must decide what to do next. Any project would compete with other state projects for limited federal funding.
For now, residents like Bennett keep waiting for a solution that may never come.
Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.