A key difference between the two is that the city must provide 25% of the funds for the $10 million South Shores program, FEMA the remainder. Though the two buyouts are different - South Shores is through the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), Ken Knight the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) - they have the same goal: offering property owners affected by Hurricane Irma an opportunity to sell for a fair price. If none can be found, historically significant homes may not be eligible. If they are deemed historic, then the city will look in other neighborhoods for homes of equal significance - such as by the same architect - to affix the historic designation to, as a form of mitigation. Some homes in the second batch are being evaluated for historic significance. Cumber’s office said implementation is likely to begin by early December. City Council recently approved legislation on a second tranche of 22 homes there as well. 20 to the first 13 homeowners who have agreed to buyouts. Three years since the city first applied for South Shores buyouts, the Office of General Counsel is now reviewing offers to be sent by Nov. The city is in the early stages of figuring out the Ken Knight Drive program, which was announced earlier this year. Irma led Jacksonville to avail itself of federal funding to buy and demolish homes damaged or threatened by the flooding. Last year, Princeton University researchers predicted that 100-year floods may now occur anywhere from three times a century to every single year in the Southeast.
Historically expected once per century, as the name implies, the frequency of such flooding is anticipated to increase along with the earth’s average temperatures.
Irma, combined with the Nor’easter that had stalled over Jacksonville before it even arrived, caused what’s known as a 100-year flood. “This place has never flooded until then,” she said. Her neighbor Artelia Arisme, who lives in the home her parents bought in 1968, said it was a first in her lifetime. “ was all the way to the bottom of my couch,” she said. Ken Knight resident Charisse Lamb captured her flooded street during Irma. Cynthia Ellis, who rents a row house across the street from the river, grimaces to remember. “I had to park well up the street, and when I walked back up, the water was this high,” he said, gesturing towards his hip.Īs Holladay waded to his home, across town, the Ribault River had cleared its banks along Ken Knight Drive. He dropped his wife off nearby, then returned to assess. Early the morning Irma hit, he opened the front door to find his home surrounded by water. Nuisance flooding is a regular occurrence on some streets, tire tracks permanently gouge the grass from people driving around water.īob Holladay has lived in South Shores for 28 years. Alton Gordon said he used this boat to rescue about 17 people as Irma flooded his street.īoth South Shores and Ken Knight Drive are firmly in the floodplain. Flooding was particularly bad in South Shores, which lies just across from TIAA Bank Field, as well as in the Ken Knight Drive area of Northwest Jacksonville, where one resident used his boat to rescue neighbors trapped by rising waters. In 2017, Hurricane Irma pushed millions of gallons of water into Jacksonville, turning streets into canals and inundating homes and businesses. “Frankly the program allows homeowners that couldn’t afford to continue to stay and couldn’t afford to fix the damage that the flooding has done to their homes, so I’m glad that there was relief available,” said Councilwoman LeeAnna Cumber, who represents South Shores.
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