‘Don’t take it lightly.’ Rubonia community braces for Hurricane Dorian rain, flooding
As Hurricane Dorian looms in the Atlantic Ocean, one historic neighborhood in Manatee County is still at least two years away from seeing dramatic drainage improvements.
Flooding in Rubonia is a well-documented issue that local leaders have yet to fix. The community, located off U.S. 41 north of Palmetto and south of Interstate 275, was designed and built in the early 1900s, long before Florida implemented drainage regulations about 60 years later.
In the meantime, Rubonia residents have become accustomed to intense flooding, but in 2017, Gov. Rick Scott approved $1.5 million in state funding for drainage improvements. Manatee County chipped in another $2.1 million for the project, as well.
County staff say they’re looking to install 5-foot sidewalks on one side of each road and remove the ditches that serve as the community’s only defense against flooded streets. A 2-acre stormwater pond is planned and neighborhood ditches will be replaced with a more efficient drainage pipe system.
“By the time we get done, there will be a great improvement,” said Sia Mollanazar, the county’s deputy director of engineering services.
The project is at about 80 percent design completion, and construction should begin at some point in 2020, Mollanazar said. Rubonia residents who have been fighting for the upgrades since 2009 say it’s already been too long.
“I don’t like the way we’ve been treated,” said Charles Miller Sr., who has been a vocal critic of the county’s delay. “We need to put some pressure on them.”
But with a hurricane that the National Weather Service is expecting to drop between 4 and 8 inches of rainfall just days away, Rubonia’s resilience is being called into question.
Miller acknowledged that he has seen county crews surveying the land and cleaning the ditches in preparation for the upgrades, but Hurricane Dorian raises more immediate concerns. In conversations with the Rubonia Community Association, he urged his neighbors to take the hurricane seriously.
“I told them don’t take it lightly. I just filled my truck up and I’ve got gas cans ready, too,” he said. “It’s devastating what a storm like that can do.”
The scheduled improvements are already fully funded, and the construction will take another two years when it begins next year, said Chad Butzow, director of Manatee’s Public Works department.
“There’s a lot of ditch piping and sidewalk going in at the same time,” Butzow explained.
Past hurricanes and tropical storms have wreaked havoc on the community. Dorian may do the same.
The challenge, Mollanazar explained, is that the county can’t stick to its usual fix that involves raising the roadway elevation. Given Rubonia’s topography, that would only increase the flooding issues.
“It’s a tough task dealing with such an old neighborhood,” he said.
In the meantime, Rubonia residents are being provided with sandbags to prepare for Dorian. The storm is expected to make landfall on the east cost of Florida on Monday night, according to Thursday’s 5 p.m. advisory from the National Hurricane Center.
This story was originally published August 29, 2019 at 5:37 PM with the headline "‘Don’t take it lightly.’ Rubonia community braces for Hurricane Dorian rain, flooding."
