Floods: Panhandle Delegation Asks For Disaster Declaration

June 13, 2012

Following a weekend of rain that deluged Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties, panhandle lawmakers on Tuesday urged Gov. Rick Scott to declare the two counties disaster areas so they can apply for relief.

Parts of the panhandle region were hit with nearly two feet of rain, a torrent that caused widespread flooding and caused a “significant amount of damage” to the Escambia County Jail, which was flooded by up to five feet of water.

“It is with great urgency that we request your assistance by declaring Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties and the areas affected by the rain and flooding as a natural disaster,” stated the letter to Scott from Sen. Don Gaetz, Sen. Greg Evers, Rep. Clay Ford, Rep. Matt Gaetz, and Rep. Clay Ingram.

Pictured top: Flooding Saturday morning at the Escambia County Jail. Courtesy photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.

Comments

11 Responses to “Floods: Panhandle Delegation Asks For Disaster Declaration”

  1. Joslyn on August 15th, 2012 5:38 am

    I understand by talking to fema that you failed to ask for any assistance for any individual who lost uncovered belongings or homes by insurance for the june2012 flood in escambia county florida. I have severalthousands of dollars worth of loss not covered. plus im on unemployment with 4 kids who have lost. Nounemployment extended and no help for relocation due to losses. Wow what a governor you turned out to be.

  2. Marie on June 26th, 2012 7:33 pm

    Email the Governor and let him know the State of Florida needs Federal help. Here is the link.http://www.flgov.com/contact-gov-scott/email-the-governor/

  3. jeeperman on June 14th, 2012 10:43 am

    The county would be better off to vacate the basement entirely.
    Build a power annex building above grade or even elevated with parking on grade under it.
    At the same time go with natural gas boilers instead of those mega expensive electric boilers.

  4. Pensacola worker on June 14th, 2012 7:44 am

    I don’t understand why those expensive vehicles were not moved. The Sheriff’s Dept. is a 24-hour facility. Surely, people saw what was happening. I work downtown and Palafox St. floods. When I see it happening, I go out and move my vehicle, even if I do get wet doing it.

  5. chris1 on June 13th, 2012 6:19 pm

    Whoever OKed building that building there should be fired and sued.
    BUT ,they are a govt. workers ,who will likely get raises.
    I worked about 1/2 a mile from the jail for 2 decades and saw flooding many times,
    many clues were given.
    Why are people so surprised?
    It will happen again,

  6. Jane on June 13th, 2012 5:14 pm

    This is a huge drainage issue. Too small pipes to remove water in this sandy soil…the pipes are half full of sand. The pumps are located where they will be under water so they are useless even if they use a generator when the power goes out. Maybe they need to spend some money on a good drainage system instead of declaring an emergency every time it floods. Besides, look at all the jobs it would create for people!

  7. mickey bostick on June 13th, 2012 2:39 pm

    From what we heard the pumps were under water with the rest of the equipment and the problem is even with a pump theres was no where to pump it to because it came up so fast all the holding ponds were full. Also as for a basement,that jail was a hospital before it was a jail, it was not built that way to be a jail. And with a hurricane you have days to prepare where no body had any idea the area was behind the jail would fill up 12 feet deep in a couple of hours. I personally think that everyone involved did an outstanding job to get power and air conditioning back to the jail within 2 days and no one had to be evacuated..I have to give the people involved a thumbs up..

  8. Richard on June 13th, 2012 1:03 pm

    There is a pump that is in place to remove the water when it reaches a certain level. For some reason it didn’t work.

  9. Paul C. on June 13th, 2012 11:27 am

    I wonder why Rep. Broxson was not interested in being a member of the delegation supporting our counties? Seems to me that we would get more accomplished if it was a total team effort.

  10. A Garcia on June 13th, 2012 9:44 am

    i have flood insurance, so i am one of the lucky ones if thats what you want to call it. i will STILL have to pay money out of pocket for a home I am upside down in. you sheeple are sitting there waiting, probably updating your facebook statuses instead of emailing the governor Rick Scott, asking him to get his thumb out of his backside.

    Wake up people. If we collectively ask for assistance along with Senators and lawmakers, we get the assistance/relief as well! The longer they take to declare this disaster a DISASTER, the more mold grows and the higher your debt becomes!

    P.S. good luck ever selling your homes if they were affected by this disaster.

  11. SHO-NUFF on June 13th, 2012 4:01 am

    Total negligence and lack of Civil engineering on behalf of the County.
    There is a reason there are not many Basements in areas South of I-10.
    Any model pre construction should consider the possible rainfall we had prior to construction.