Florida has a reputation, and hurricanes feature prominently in it.  

Storm season rightly receives the most intense storms, but water shapes Florida all year long. Gainesville staff must also be ready to deal with the impacts all year.  

From keeping waterways clean to cleaning our wastewater, Gainesville staff stay busy. At the Public Works Department, stormwater management forms a core service for residents.  

Brian Singleton, public works director, said his staff responds to named and unnamed storms along with heavy afternoon rains, checking a flood list with around 50 different locations.  

“We’re Florida, so an afternoon thunderstorm could cause issues, too,” Singleton said. “So, each time we know there’s a rain event coming we check and after the rain event as well. It’s year-round.”  

A storm doesn’t need to drop almost-record rainfall to cause issues. Singleton said steady rain over a period of time can keep the ground saturated. A small storm can then immediately cause flooding as the water searches for places to go. 

On a Friday in early May, a 10-minute popup storm prompted 40 calls for service—equaling the number of calls for some hurricanes that hit close.  

Crews check locations on the flood list for tree debris or trash blocking stormwater drains. Once a kiddie swimming pool was the culprit.  

“We had one of those in a drainage inlet that blocked and started backing up and flooding, so that’s part of what we see,” Singleton said.  

In a Tree City USA, a branch or leaves can cause problems in the stormwater drains, but Singleton said anything random could cause problems downstream. Many stormwater basins drain to a nearby creek, and all water in Gainesville eventually flows to three places—Newnans Lake, Paynes Prairie and Laka Kanapaha. 

Singleton said residents should secure anything that might blow away. It could end up causing drainage issues or littering our lakes.  

The Public Works Department mows, clears silt and replaces pipes at stormwater basins throughout the year. During storm events, the department can add temporary pumps where water is rising.  

Public works has stormwater management crews that complete the work. Other stormwater duties include street sweeping, mosquito control and sandbag distribution. The stormwater work is funded through a city fee placed on monthly Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) bills.    

However older parts of Gainesville lack stormwater facilities since the developments precede policy requirements established in the early 1990s. 

“Most of the issues we see are locations that have pre–Water Management District regulations—so where there are no modern stormwater management facilities,” Singleton said. “And that’s the majority of Gainesville to tell you the truth.”   

Modern developments must calculate the volume and flow of wastewater leaving the not-yet-developed land. Singleton said those numbers must stay the same after the house, apartment complex or business has been built on the site. 

“Gainesville, it’s not new infrastructure,” Singleton said. “So, we tend to know where our issues are, and then as new development comes in, we’re reviewing those development plans and making sure they’re mitigating their impact.”   

Storms still bring surprises though. The Florida Park neighborhood, west of NW 13th Street and south of NW 16th Avenue, has a berm built in the 1950s. After a tree fell during Hurricane Irma, several houses in the area were flooded. 

Public works began fixing the berm, removing other trees that could fall, enforcing it with rocks and planting native vegetation to prevent erosion. That project, with construction costing $950,000, will finish by the end of June.  

Singleton said the department is currently pushing to complete several master plans concerning water impacts. One is the Hogtown Creek Watershed Master Plan another is a vulnerability analysis of Gainesville’s critical infrastructure.  

Those plans will then lead to mitigation projects to plan for future storms. 

Singleton said the small things help public works respond to incidents or prevent them from happening. As storms approach, check your property for anything that might blow away and bring it inside or tie it down. He added that residents shouldn’t put leaves or organic debris into the stormwater drains on streets.  

Those small steps help, he said.  

Promptly alerting the Public Works Department allows quicker responses to control potentially dangerous situations that arise with flooding or downed trees.  

“That’s why we’re here and ready to respond, 24/7,” Singleton said. “Even if some storm blows through during the night, we get up and we start checking trouble spots.” 

The work happens June through October and then October through June—a year-round response to protect and keep Gainesville running.