Sarasota County spokespersons said Monday that amid heavy damage and flooding at St. Armands Circle at homes and businesses after last week’s rains, the new emergency rain pump systems put in place to handle excess runoff water worked as designed.
Even so, many businesses found themselves closed for at least a day or more while clean up and mitigation of the flood waters continued after last week’s historic rainfall.
Last year after Hurricane Idalia, Sarasota County engineers said they were working on the a plan to replace 20-year-old flood runoff systems.
During the height of last year’s hurricane surge, the electrical panels were knocked off line the old systems causing most of the pumping systems to fail near St. Armands Circle.
The county has upgraded and put a new taller train towers that can withstand more storm force.