Weather

Post Irma: Residents around Lake Harney prepare, major flood stage soon

There is a lake everywhere you look across Central Florida. Some houses might have even experienced lake surge.

Residents along lakes near the St. Johns River will continue to see flooding even days after Hurricane Irma is well gone.
At 310 miles, St. Johns River is the longest river in Florida and it is one of the few rivers in the country that flows from south to north, starting in Indian River and ending in Jacksonville, flowing out to the Atlantic.

We visited Lake Harney on Tuesday afternoon. Communities surrounding Lake Harney will have to deal with Irma’s impacts for a while longer. Many families were cleaning debris, burning it and just surveying the damages across their neighborhood.

We talked to a family preparing for more flooding as the water level from Lake Harney is expected to increase almost 2 feet more.

Lake Harney is currently in a moderate flood, but as the water recedes from Brevard, Osceola and eastern Orange counties, more water will flow to Lake Harney taking it to a major flood stage as it makes its way to the St. Johns River.

Members of the Dangel family explained that their Lake front home will experience more flooding as the waters increase, and that the road will be completely flooded by the end of the week. Although they do not expect the water to get into their home, they were elevating all the items in their garage about 6 inches. The land in front of their home is already flooded, along with driveways of surrounding homes.


Currently Lake Harney is as a moderate level, 9 feet 23 inches. It is forecast to be at 10.1 feet by Thursday afternoon, in major flood stage.
It is forecast to slowly decrease but remain in the high range of moderate stage flooding by Sunday.

Check: Central Florida lake level