Flooding Frustrations Continue Across South Florida Especially Melrose Park In Fort Lauderdale
BROWARD (CBSMiami) – If you're not in a big SUV getting in or out of the Melrose neighborhoods in Fort Lauderdale chances are you are on foot.
CBS4 cameras captured one woman who took off her shoes after being dropped off and was trudging through the water to get home.
Two dozen vacuum trucks are running 24/7, sopping up as much water as they can.
The state is sending up to 12 more to help out.
"We've got to re-engineer this, we got to get ahold of it," said Robert McKinzie who is the District 3 Commissioners in Fort Lauderdale.
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"We got to prioritize Melrose Manors and Melrose Park to see what we can do to get water off the street," he said.
He toured the neighborhood saying, "This is the time that we can do the heavy lifting and get what is needed over here and prioritize this and start working on it immediately."
The Melrose neighborhoods were annexed by Fort Lauderdale and are not on the city storm drain system. Melrose Manors has no drains, it relies on evaporation to get rid of water.
Next door in Melrose Park there are retention ditches. After Tropical Storm ETA and recent heavy rains, they're full, leaving lots of standing water.
WATCH: CBS4's Ty Russell Shares More On The Soggy Situation
Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis vows the problem will get fixed as part of the city's 200 million dollar plan to upgrade storm drains.
PHOTO GALLERY: FLOODING IN SOUTH FLORIDA
"Melrose park and Melrose Manors, you're in our sights," said Mayor Trantalis.
This latest round of flooding could push it to the top of the list. "Melrose was on the second rung of neighborhoods, but obviously we need to address this as a priority. This is the worst area of the entire city," the Mayor.
The drainage in Melrose Park and Melrose Manors will be discussed at next Tuesday's city commission meeting.
