DADE CITY, Fla. — Charlene Pitts has had enough of road crews out in front of her Dade City home.
“We are hoping that no more comes this way,” said Pitts.
Workers are getting ready to repave part of Curley Road.
It was made impassable after flooding from Hurricane Milton.
“Too much water for one storm system or one road to handle is what caused the washout,” said Assistant Director of Public Works Barret Doe.
That’s led to months of detours.
“It’s like a main road through here. We have the school down the road,” said Pitts.
Public Works director Jason Mickel said they are in the process of fixing six roads in Pasco County.
“Some of them had collapsed pipes underneath and some of them had a tremendous amount of runoff like we had here,” Mickel.
Rushing water collapsed this spot on Scharber Road.
You can see the layers of asphalt and rock, and exposed cable lines.
A short distance away, repairs are further along, and this area is ready for repaving.
The county said they hope to have all the roads back open before storm season comes around again and they are working on a watershed master plan.
“We are looking at ways to avoid these larger events in the future. Try and learn from what happened,” said Mickel. “I think there were a lot of lessons learned this year both from a surge perspective and just from an accumulation of rainfall. It was very surprising to see what it could do.”
Back at Charlene’s house, she’ll be getting her road back soon.
But maybe saying goodbye to the 100-year-old tree in her front yard after Hurricane Milton’s winds started to push it over.
“Thankfully, it’s gonna go that way, but we are going to have someone take it down, and that’s going to be sad. It will have to go,” she said.
ABC Action News reporter Michael Paluska heads to Weedon Island, which has a rich history that dates back more than 12,000 years. During that time, it was home to Indigenous populations, a movie studio, an airport, a safe haven for bootleggers during prohibition, and so much more. Today, the preserve protects this wide diversity of natural and cultural resources for current and future generations.
