Areas of Port Charlotte flooded due to heavy rain

Some areas of Port Charlotte were underwater after heavy rain Wednesday evening.

Charlotte County told us there is widespread flooding near Port Charlotte Middle School.

We spoke to John Elias, the county’s public works director, about the flooding.

“We were exceeding two inches of rain in about an hour period in some areas. Some isolated areas had four inches of rain in two hours. Our systems are generally designed for a five-year storm, which is the equivalent of about five inches of rain over a 24-hour period. That equated to a 25-year storm that moved through our area,” he said.

He said it was too much rain, too fast, which caused the water to flow out of the ditches and into the road, creating flooding.

He said that Helene did have an effect on Thursday night’s flooding.

“We had four inches of rain left 48 hours ago in some isolated areas. Some overlapped in the same areas. The result of the tidal surge and the various windborne things that occurred as a result of Helene has blown debris and stuff into the swales, and it doesn’t take much to block a pipe,” he said.

He said that the rain was letting up for the night. Provided the county doesn’t get more rain, he expects most of this water to recede by Thursday morning.