Florida lawmakers recently passed a bill called the “No Vehicle Wake Flood Zone” bill, which would ban drivers from speeding through flooded streets and lower speed limits during floods.
If you're caught pushing water into homes by speeding past, you could get a ticket.
While the bill is designed to limit property damage, residents in Naples' Aqualane Shores say the root issue is the flooding itself.
“So I bought during the rainy season and saw very quickly the flooding issues on the street and started immediately emailing the city council with photos and videos and asking for help,” said Laura Barker, who lives on 17th Avenue South.
Barker and her neighbor Martin Horneck helped form a group with more than a dozen residents to address frequent flooding.
They hired a drainage engineer and brought their concerns to Naples City Council — complete with a presentation, photos, and ideas like installing a water pump.
“We believe there's a couple of things to address,” Horneck said. “The two flooding types that are most critical for us, we have saltwater flooding and the canal rises and we have king tides, and there's more that push us back into the street. And we have rainwater flooding.”
Horneck’s home sits in a low section of the street where water pools during a typical summer storm. He’s built a swale to try to divert the flooding, but says it's not enough.
He’s seen water rise to his mailbox — and during hurricanes, all the way to his garage. When told about the proposed bill, Horneck said it’s a good step. Drivers often drive through his street during storms, sending waves of water into yards.
But he believes the biggest issue is the need for better infrastructure.
Barker and Horneck say city council members have met with them and are open to exploring solutions. Barker hopes the work she and her neighbors are doing will help not just Aqualane Shores, but other vulnerable neighborhoods as well.
“We're hoping that whatever we discover through our own initiative with our own drainage engineer, and working with them, that our solutions can have a positive effect for other low-lying areas in Naples,” Barker said.
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