FORT MYERS, Fla. — Major storm or not, some areas of Southwest Florida flood regardless.
Ahead of a wet weekend, FOX 4's Miyoshi Price checked in on two areas known to flood: Palm Beach Boulevard and Fowler Street in Fort Myers.
The operations manager, Dominique Stearns, at Max Drive off of Palm Beach Blvd. says flooding impacts businesses economically with aftermath damage cost.
"A huge fear of ours was having our inventory damaged," she tells FOX 4.
She shares her concern not only for where she works, but also from everyone in the area - saying she feels like the Southwest Florida downpour impacts everyone.
"It delays traffic a lot."
She explained that the rain causes debris to travel to the sewers, and the water has nowhere to go.
"When a big storm comes, it'll be pretty far up into the side road and even occasionally come into our lot," says Stearns.
She says that regular rainy days are worse for their Fowler location.
"Sometimes, overnight the next day, and then in the morning, it might not have rained for eight hours, but it's still flooded eight hours later," says Stearns.
We reached out to the city to see what precautions they are taking to prepare for what could be a wet weekend.
The city's public information officer, Noelle Casagrande, says that for lower-lying areas like Dean Park, staff has assured her that the pumps and generators are operational and that they have staff on standby if needed. That are is very close to Palm Beach Blvd.
Casagrande says she cannot speak about preparations on Palm Beach Boulevard or Fowler Street because they are state roads, but confirms that the city notifies the Florida Department of Transportation to clean its drains.
"It would be very nice to make sure that storm drains are cleared," says Stearns.
