Sara Hartley has lived at her home in Pooler at Barrington Estates off Quacco Road since 2009. She said that the flooding they experienced during Tropical Storm Debby was worse than Hurricane Matthew in 2016.
“For this event, it came into our garage, like the entire footprint of our garage was under an inch to 2 inches of water, and it has basically come up to the first step to our front door,” Hartley said. “In the back, it’s basically at the same point, so our house is like a little island surrounded by water.”
Deluge: Debby dumps 8 inches of rain on Savannah; storm surge risk ‘probably about over’
Tropical Storm Debby slowed with its center just southwest of Savannah early Tuesday. The National Weather Service said 1 inch of rain was possible for Tuesday and Tuesday night, as well as Wednesday and Wednesday night. The Savannah-area experienced between 6 and 8 inches of rain since midday Monday, and Hartley said she believes they got around 11 inches of rain between Monday morning and midday Tuesday.
“Our lot specifically backs up to one of the branches of the canal system that then links into a branch of the system along 95, and flows out, I believe, into the Ogeechee,” Hartley said. “So, part of it is because it’s all linked to that, and eventually it just gets inundated with all the stormwater runoff and can’t go anywhere fast enough. They did do work to improve our drainage after Matthew, but we haven’t had any significant flooding until now.”
Irven Williams, who has lived in the cul-de-sac since 2005, said the area has been flooding for as long as he can remember, but that the city has done very little to address it and believes the new pumping station on Quacco Road is ineffective.
“The water here is 3 to 4 feet, easy,” Williams said. “We drove a jet ski up to the top of the street to see how far the water went up, but there’s no vehicles coming or going on my street. Not until the water goes down. If we’re lucky, then by Thursday, the water should be gone but until then, we’re stuck.”
Hartley said she spoke with Pooler Stormwater Superintendent Chris Costa early in the day, who said that there wasn’t much to be done other than waiting for it to drain further, but Williams wants Mayor Karen Williams (no relation) to come down to the area to see how bad it is, because it’s “nothing new.”
“We’re looking for any kind of solution,” Williams said. “We have some retention ponds, and I’m sure that’s what they were there for, where the storm drains lead into them, and once they flood it goes over the banks and into the streets. I believe there’s a pond on my side of the street ― all you have to do is enlarge, dig it deeper, and clean it out.”
Both Hartley and Williams suggested that the city could pay better attention to it to explore better opportunities to divert the water in the future.
Destini Ambus is the general assignment reporter for Chatham County municipalities for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach her at [email protected]
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Pooler neighborhood trapped after TS Debby leaves them under water
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