Tampa Resident Takes Drainage Into His Own Hands After Flooding

TAMPA — When floodwaters surged down his street in South Tampa on Monday, James Adair didn’t wait for the city to respond. Armed with a shovel and garden trimmer, he waded into the rising water and started clearing debris from clogged storm drains himself.

“I shouldn’t have to do it,” he told Bay News 9. “We’re paying for stormwater but, quite frankly, I haven’t seen any benefit from that.”

The sudden downpour dropped 2.3 inches of rain in just 30 minutes—enough to overwhelm Tampa’s drainage system and leave parts of the city underwater. For Adair, it was a repeat of a nightmare he thought he had put behind him. After Hurricane Milton devastated his home last year, he spent nearly $100,000 on repairs. Now, less than a year later, he watched floodwaters creep toward his property again.

Adair expressed frustration with the city’s response to repeated flooding, but he’s taking it in stride. “I don’t really care to be wet again,” he said. “If I can just cut some bushes, I mean, do some digging, at least I’ll get another couple of weeks until the city can get out here.”

Other residents echoed Adair’s concerns as water filled driveways and swamped cars. Longtime homeowners Trina Bertoli and Linda Wilkinson said they’ve never seen rain alone cause this kind of flooding. “It looks like I had riverfront again, like it did with the hurricane,” Bertoli said. “It’s very concerning. We all suffered catastrophic losses.”

With hurricane season now underway, Adair and his neighbors fear the worst is still to come. And unless Tampa steps up its infrastructure work, he says, more residents may be forced to grab a shovel and fend for themselves.