APALACHICOLA, Fla. (WTXL) — A gulf coast city is cleaning up after heavy rain and storm surge dumped inches of water.
Many people stepped out of their homes and into puddles Monday morning. The amount of water is normal during a hurricane, but not so much after a rainstorm.
"I got up this morning and I couldn't believe how much water how got in my yard," said Peg Brown, whose yard flooded after the storm. "Basically only the front of my house was out of the water."
"It happens with any big storm," said Kevin Begos, the mayor of Apalachicola.
Begos says some people woke up to as much as a foot of water flooding their yards.
"What's big here is the hurricane is pretty far away," Begos said. "The combination between the rain and the storm surge caused all of the floodings."
Brown says she's never seen her yard flood after a rainstorm, but this time was different.
"Not this high," said Brown. "We actually saw turtles swimming in the pond."
Across the city, damages from the storm are being felt.
"It sort of drove our sewer system crazy, the stormwater system," Begos said. "We have vacuum pumps that move things around. When they get flooded, literally the whole thing gets flooded with water and shut down part of the system."
Still, people are thankful that all they're seeing is flooding.
"We're just hoping it dries out a little bit," said Begos.
Begos is concerned about the remainder of the week. He says the rainy forecast for the next few days could cause even more flooding damage.
