By Jennifer Gray, Melissa Alonso and Angela Fritz, CNN
Hundreds of homes in central Florida are nonetheless submerged in floodwater because the St. Johns — a notoriously lazy river on the east facet of the peninsula — lethargically drains the historic rainfall that Hurricane Ian dropped almost two weeks in the past.
The river goes to spend at the very least the following week at a better stage than it’s been in almost 60 years, forecasts present, and the National Weather Service warns that water could keep above flood stage through Thanksgiving.
In Seminole County northeast of Orlando, upwards of 400 homes are “inaccessible” as a consequence of flooding, in accordance with county planning supervisor Steven Lerner. The metropolis of Geneva, which is tucked right into a bend in the river and between two lakes, is especially inundated.
“This area historically floods, and many residents stick it out” in their homes, Lerner informed CNN in a cellphone interview. Lerner was undecided what number of residents could have already left as a result of of the flooding.
The St. Johns River begins southeast of Orlando and flows north through dozens of cities on the east facet of the Florida Peninsula earlier than it drains into the Atlantic Ocean in Jacksonville.
The river flows throughout 300 miles, but solely drops round 30 ft — making this river one of the slowest in the world, in accordance with Scott Kelly, a forecaster on the National Weather Service in Melbourne.
“It is a very, very lazy river,” Kelly informed CNN. “Very slow moving.”
Kelly suspects the flooding could go on “perhaps for a couple of months,” and officers anticipate this slow-moving disaster to creep north over the following few weeks.
The water in Geneva “will eventually move to the Astor area,” Lerner stated. “It’s a very slow trickle process.”
Astor is an unincorporated neighborhood in Lake County and is on the west facet of the river, simply south of Lake George. Lerner stated there’s often a two-week delay for water to circulation from Geneva to Astor; so they need to see the water stage rise quickly.
But already in DeLand — between Geneva and Astor — drone imagery exhibits homes and companies inundated by darkish brown water that has pushed past the river’s banks.
“Geneva … DeLand and Astor have all seen record flooding with this event,” Kelly informed CNN. “So this is not something anyone has seen at least in the last 70 years.”
Hurricane Ian dumped as a lot as 20 inches of rain on this half of Florida almost two weeks in the past — an amazing quantity of rain that’s changing into extra widespread because the planet warms. Scientists have proven that hotter air can maintain extra moisture, pushing hurricanes to provide more durable rainfall.
Ian’s rainfall was at least 10% higher as a result of of human-caused local weather change, in accordance with a fast evaluation by scientists at Stony Brook University and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
The National Weather Service expects extra rain in the area over the following few days as a chilly entrance pushes through Florida. But Kelly stated it received’t push the river to rise any additional than it already is.
“It’s going to probably freak people out because it’s going to start raining again,” Kelly stated. “It will probably be extra spotty showers and mustn’t have a big influence on the river stage.
Now, forecasters are principally involved about getting ready folks for weeks of flooding.
“We’re not sure that people understand fully that this river is not going to go down very quickly,” stated Kelly. “And so, yes, it’s crested in most places but it’s going to stay near or at that crest for many days and we don’t think people are prepared mentally for that.”
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.