Florida Keys flood, property worries seep in

People taken by surprise when some streets stayed inundated for nearly a month

Extreme high tides have turned streets into canal-like swamps in the Florida Keys, with armies of mosquitoes and the stench of stagnating water filling the air, and residents worried rising sea levels will put a damper on property values in the island chain.

On Key Largo, a tropical isle famous for snorkelling and fishing, the floods began in late September. While people expected high tides due to the season and the influence of a super moon, they were taken by surprise when a handful of streets in the lowest-lying neighbourhoods stayed inundated for nearly a month with 40-centimeters of saltwater.

By early November, the roads finally dried up. But unusually heavy rains in December brought it all back again.

“Like a sewer,” said Narelle Prew, 49, who has lived for the past 20 years in her four-bedroom home on Adams Drive, a waterfront lane lined by boat docks.

Residents have signed petitions, voiced anger at community meetings and demanded that local officials do something, whether by raising roads or improving drainage.

Sometimes, they clash over whether the floods are, or are not, a result of man-made climate change.

Local argument

“We get vocal residents who show up and argue,” said Dottie Moses, president of the Island of Key Largo Federation of Homeowners Association, who has never seen such high waters — or high tempers — in her 30 years of living here.

“There seems to be a mix of responses — whether they think it is sea level rise, and what they think the government should be doing about it.” Residents tend to agree on one thing, which is for many their life’s biggest investment.

Plot points

“We are all concerned about our property values,” said Prew, the mother of 11-yearold twins, who estimates her home’s market value at about a million dollars.

“It is like taking a peek at the future,” said Henry Briceno, a geologist at Florida International University, of the Key Largo floods, which he says were driven by abnormal tides and made worse by rising seas.