And with two months left in South Florida’s hurricane season, lake levels cannot be allowed to drift too high, they say.Ĭase in point: Hurricane Katrina, which lumbered ashore in South Florida on Aug. This summer’s drenching June compounded the problem, they say. They say two hurricanes that hit nearly a year ago, Frances and Jeanne, set the stage for the current problem by jacking the lake up 5 feet.
They argue that they have no other option but to shoot water from the lake, which stood at 15.7 feet above sea level last week, directly east and west and cast a lot of the blame on calamitously wet weather. Army Corps of Engineers and South Florida Water Management, co-managers of the lake, said areas to the north are oversaturated with water already and unable to hold more. Government approval of overdevelopment in the region stymies that, they charge. The river forces also want to see more floodwater retained in drainage areas and lakes south of Orlando, so less will course south through the Kissimmee River to inflate Lake Okeechobee. “I would say almost nothing,” said Andrew Geller, an Army Corps of Engineers hydraulic engineer.
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