Rain, high tide brings minor flooding to Longboat Key

Sometimes no news is good news during hurricane season. 

Longboat Key experienced downpours and higher-than-normal tides on Saturday, but no appreciable damage or serious flooding took place as Tropical Storm Cristobal made landfall Sunday in southeast Louisiana.

“I also personally drove the island on Saturday because that was a full moon day with high tide, and so I wanted to see it myself,” Town Manager Tom Harmer said. “The reports I got back, we did have flooding in our normal low-lying areas, but all the roads, from a public safety standpoint, were determined to still be passable.”

Cristobal has since weakened to a tropical depression as it continues to move through Louisiana.

“We had water in the roadways in one lane on Gulf of Mexico Drive where we typically do,” Harmer said. “The staff had put up the Water in the Roadway signs. We did have water in the roads and in some yards in the Village, and some of our other streets where we typically we’ll have flooding around General Harris [Street], Lyons Lane and Sleepy Lagoon area.”

Harmer said he did not hear of any reports of flooding into homes in Longboat Key.

“I have not received any reports yet on beach conditions,” Harmer said. “We did have some rough surf conditions, so it would be unusual if we wouldn’t have some impact, but that can tend to be a little bit temporary as the sand moves around.”

The official start of the Atlantic hurricane season began on June 1. It runs through Nov. 30.