ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — As a widow and mom of four kids, Jennifer Connell-Wandstrat has enough to worry about, but right now, her stress load is even bigger.
“The stress level is through the roof,” she said. “I mean, trauma responses where you just don’t even have any emotions anymore because you’ve just gone through them all.”
Her biggest worry right now is her neighborhood and what happens to it during storms and periods of high tide.
“We’ve flooded twice in the last three years,” she said.
She lives in Shore Acres, which is just one of the St. Petersburg neighborhoods that experiences frequent flooding that Mayor Ken Welch says is getting worse.
“And it’s evident that we are seeing elevated impacts from sea level rise and climate change,” the mayor said.
In a Tuesday night meeting, Mayor Welch and city leaders outlined what the city is doing in response, including stormwater infrastructure upgrading, frequently clearing drains and sweeping streets, and studying which areas are most vulnerable and need immediate fixes.
“We are putting together an elevated response,” Welch said.
However, during the meeting, city leaders also took time to listen and heard frustration, exasperation, and desperation.
“We were inundated with water twice with these last two floods,” one resident told them.
“Moved over here a year ago, the house is flooded completely, lost both cars, had to get the pets out through the window into canoes,” another added.
Welch believes the city can and should do more, but he said it would need cooperation and partnership between the state and federal governments.
“It is a top priority,” he said. “It’s a top priority.”
However, Connell-Wandstrat, the mother of four, still has her doubts, and that’s not just her assessment. Her 9-year-old daughter thinks so, too.
“She says that the city is doing nothing,” Connell-Wandstrat told the mayor and his staff. “Those are her words. I’d like them to get off of their a-s-s and do something.”
