Preparing for major rain and relief in Cape Coral

Cape Coral is welcoming the rain. The heat and blazing sun have made it an extremely dry season for the area.

WINK News has shared countless stories of residents who have dealt with dry wells this summer,
low water levels in their canals and how it’s affected people on a day-to-day basis.

Some homes have had no running water for weeks in northeast Cape Coral, so they needed this rain.

“A rainy, rainy season would be very good,” said Howard Bartels, a Cape Coral resident. “I mean, it helps. I hate to say but tropical storms do help. Because we do get a lot of sustainable rain. I mean, everybody’s got green grass today because it’s rained in the last couple of days, but it was looking pretty bad out here.”

• READ MORE: ‘I’m done with Cape Coral;’ Water shortage continues to frustrate residents

But in northwest Cape Coral, residents are worried about the flooding that comes with it.

WINK News reporter Camila Pereira spoke with Mark Elsner, the Water Supply Bureau Chief at South Florida Water Management.

Elsner said that flooding may be something people won’t have to worry about.

“Typically, in preparing for heavy rain, we will drop the canal systems to allow storage in the canal. We don’t have to worry about that right now because there is storage in the canal because of the dry weather we’ve been having,” said Elsner, “So from that area of preparation, there is storage volume in those canals. It’s just the delay on how hard the rain comes and how fast that water can move into the canal system or percolate in the ground.”

Elsener doesn’t say we won’t see any flooding, rather some minor flooding and ponding depending on the amount of rainfall we get. Especially as our meteorologists are projecting a good amount of rain throughout the week.

But will this week’s rainfall be enough?

Elsner said it’s going to take a lot more where that came from to really make a difference.

“One rainfall event is not going to resolve our situation,” he said. “We need a summer of rainfall. To recharge the aquifer, bring those levels back up to a level that next dry season, there’ll be some room for that water level to decline and still support the needs on the aquifer.”