“Yesterday they told us we needed to leave,” said Kristie Troyer, resident of Wilder RV Resort – which includes manufactured homes – in south Fort Myers, Florida. “We don’t know when we’ll get back in … or if we will.”
The situation in Texas is certainly tragically epic, compared to this news from Florida, because over 12 trillion gallons of water have reportedly fallen from the skies to date per Drudge.
But there is suffering in south Florida too.
“Today and even into tomorrow we’re still looking at some chances of heavy rain,” said John Michael, of the National Weather Service, on Monday, per USA Today. “We’re looking at 1 to 2 inches in your area, and there will be some localized rain of 4 to 6 inches. Tuesday could be little less, but it could be a 1 to 2 inches again.”
Across southwest Florida, cities have seen rainfall up to 16-inches.
Flood-watches have ended in most of southwest Florida, but remain in areas where the most flooding occurred.
Flooding, Evacuation and Those Who Choose to Stay Home
For the Troyer family and other residents of Wilder RV Resort the flooding meant evacuating as early as Saturday, per News Press.
The community saw 13.2-inches of rain. So far it has not been stated whether residents have been able to get into their homes to assess any potential damage.
“This was home,” Troyer said of their RV. “This is what we owned. Everything we owned was in our truck, our house as we call it, and a storage unit. We’re living in a hotel.”
Many of the residents of the resort were seasonal residents – or snowbirds as the locals call them. This meant that only a handful of residents had to evacuate the combination RV park, manufactured home community.
Similarly, a couple hours north in Manatee County another combination MHC and RV park were urged to evacuate, per the Herald Tribune.
However, many residents chose to stay put in Vista del Lago Mobile Home and RV Park. Despite record rainfalls at 8.12 inches, the water stopped rising below the doorways of the homes in the community.
Storm Development, Potential Tropical Storm Irma?
“This weather system, for now, has been dubbed Potential Tropical Cyclone Ten – a naming convention used to identify features that have a chance to develop into a tropical depression or tropical storm, but could bring tropical-storm-like impacts to the coast regardless of development – by the National Hurricane Center (NHC),” accordingly to The Weather Channel.
The storm was originally expected to become a Tropical Depression or a Tropical Storm within the next day or so. Some forecasters say the chances appear to be decreasing. But there is a Tropical Storm Watch and Warning’s issued in parts of North and South Carolina. If the storm does continue to progress, it will be named Tropical Storm Irma.
With some rain still expected throughout Tuesday it will still be a few days before southwest Florida can recover from the storm. For those who evacuated Wilder RV Resort in Fort Myers that will mean finally getting back into their homes. The impact on businesses and residents alike is well known to all those who have experienced such disasters as a professional.
“It’s been years since we’ve seen this much water so this has been really kind of an anomaly for us,” said Chief Dave Cambareri of the San Carlos Park Fire Department, per News Press. “We’re working diligently to help out all of our residents that need to be evacuated or have their needs met.” ## (News.)
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