Neighbors worried about future rain in Port Charlotte

Flooded streets and road closure signs. These aren’t from a hurricane. Just an afternoon rain shower.

Charlotte County said Wednesday night’s rain in Port Charlotte was too much and too fast, and any drainage system couldn’t handle it.

We spoke with people who’ve been through multiple hurricanes and rainstorms over the decades, but they told us Wednesday night was different.

Residents said the flooding in Port Charlotte Wednesday night was unlike anything they’ve ever experienced, and with more rain to come, they’re not optimistic.

Resident Richard Renick is preparing.

“I got sandbags. All I have to worry about is my garage door because I am at some elevation and my back door. I got my generator. I got gas,” Renick said.

• RELATED: Areas of Port Charlotte flooded due to heavy rain

No, it’s not another hurricane Renick’s prepping for–just rain.

“The soil is saturated. It can not absorb any more water, so it’s going to go into the streets and up in the yards and everything. There’s just no place for the water to go,” he said.

Just like Wednesday night, when the water was knee-high in portions of Page Street and getting dangerously close to Renick’s wife’s car.

Just fifteen minutes west, Earnest Brown told a similar story.

“This is the worst I’ve ever seen it, and even during Hurricane Ian, it didn’t. It got up to here, like almost to the back of my car, but then the next day, it was gone just that quick. This stuff is staying way too long,” Btown said.

• RELATED: Charlotte County says they don’t have drainage issues in Port Charlotte

He lives on Olean Boulevard, just off King’s Highway.

“Everybody had their trash cans out, of course, because it’s trash day, and then the cars, it was so much water coming down through the middle that the trash cans were starting to float,” he said.

And just like over at Richard’s, the water is sitting far too long.

“I think they need to check and see if something downstream here is plugged up or something because this is never taken this long, and all these ditches are about plugged up now, too, after 20-something years here,” Brown said.