Check city's interactive Water Level Risk Projection map
The City of St. Cloud has expanded areas for voluntary evacuations, mostly east and north of East Lake Toho, Lake Runnmede and Fells Cove. Those areas include Edgewater, Whisler Court, the western part of Turtle Creek, Oaktree Point, Chisholm Ridge, Hidden Oaks, Rummel-Rookery, Lake Runnymede mobile home park and Ashton Place.
Reverse 9-1-1 calls are being sent to affected residences, and city officials have been going door-to-door to notify residents. Police and high-water vehicles are assisting those who need help getting through high flood waters. DO NOT HESITATE TO CALL 9-1-1 IF YOU ARE IN AN EMERGENCY SITUATION.
Osceola Heritage Park is serving as an open shelter. Sandbags are still available at OHP and at the St. Cloud Civic Center through Monday (check back with AroundOsceola.com and facebook.com/osceolanewsgazette and Twitter @AroundOsceola).
The city has an interactive Water Level Risk Projection map showing where water may be rising. You can type in an address to check its risk. ()The site is getting a lot of traffic, so it may be slow to load.)
Additionally, the city is reporting that a few roads are closed due to flooding as waters from the nearly 17 inches of rain received over about 32 hours continue to flow through lakes, creeks and waterways:
The following roads are currently closed:
Commerce Center Drive, from Wal-Mart to Brown Chapel;
Blackberry Dr from Creek Bed Circle to Commerce;
Old Canoe Creek Road from the Post Office to Commerce Center'
Paquin Drive;
Augusta Circle;
Macon Way;
Memphis Place;
Flagler Court
Rummell Road has spots with standing water where driving is "go slow and you'll get through" near the creek that connects Lake Runnymede to Fells Cove, but the road is still open at this time.
St. Cloud Mayor Nathan Blackwell said the area's flooding issues are much the same other areas in Central Florida — along the Little Wekiva and St. John's rivers in Seminole County, Little Econ River in Orange County and, of course, along Shingle Creek on the west side of Kissimmee that forced the mandatory evacuation of Good Samaritan Village, as well as the Shingle Creek Reserve at the Oaks.
"Extrordinary, historic amount of rainfall we received from Hurricane Ian. Unprecedented," he called the storm. "We've received reports an outflow north of East Lake Toho was vandalized (Saturday night), which has caused water levels to rise across St. Cloud faster than we anticipated."
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are in town to help mitigate flooding situation.
