Sarasota County residents anticipating rising floodwaters along Myakka River

VENICE, Fla. - In Sarasota County, residents are watching for rising water levels the next few days as county officials anticipate flooding in areas along the Myakka River. 

Hurricane Debby, which began as a tropical storm, dumped a lot of rain in Sarasota County over the weekend.

"We had a lot of water. The ditches got really full. It wasn’t terrible. You could get in and out," said Shannon Thinnes, a resident who lives along the Myakka River in Venice.

RELATED: 'They're pretty devastated:' Several Sarasota area neighborhoods remain underwater after Debby

Thinnes said she’s watching the river closely, especially since she said it floods faster and more often in recent years.

"It’s now that the river is rising that we’ve become fearful," said Thinnes. "We do suspect that it’s going to come over this road and possibly get into my garage."

The National Weather Service Tampa Bay measures the river levels, expecting higher levels to the north and south Thursday afternoon.

"That's when the crest is actually forecast to occur, and that's going to be about 10, 10.5 feet. And that's what we consider a major flood. So, 10.5 feet is major for that particular portion of the river," said Brian LaMarre, a meteorologist-in-charge at National Weather Service Tampa Bay.

MORE: State Senator Joe Gruters calls for investigation, financial help following Sarasota County flooding

LaMarre said the Myakka River levels were between nine and 10 feet Wednesday afternoon, and he explained how it could rise that much.

"So that entire river basin received all of that rainfall and also the rainfall that we had here in Hillsborough County and portions of Polk County. That water was then flowing downward through the flood basin," said LaMarre.

NWS alerted Sarasota County officials, issuing a flood warning. Sarasota County is now watching for potential flooding north of Clark Road on Thursday, near I-75 Friday afternoon and around US-41 on Saturday.

"We're not expecting the water to have that significant of an impact on I-75. We drew some comparisons with Hurricane Ian back in 2022 and also Hurricane Idalia last summer," said LaMarre. "Hurricane Ian was ahead about three feet more than what we're looking at with Hurricane Debby. So that's at least good news."

READ: Rescued seabirds find sanctuary after being injured during Debby

In the meantime, Thinnes hopes no water will creep into her family’s garage. They already dealt with several feet of floodwaters during Hurricane Ian.

"My husband will just go and get a U-Haul truck. We’ll load everything up, drive it over to high ground," said Thinnes. "When the floodwaters go away, he even has to spend lots of time pressure washing and bleaching ick out. People don’t think about that part of it and then when it dries out, he brings everything back."

Sarasota County officials have a self-service sandbag location open Thursday from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. at Sarasota County Fleet-South, located at 4531 Annex Road in Venice. A location is also open at the George Mullen Activity Center located at 1602 Kramer Way in North Port while supplies last.

A temporary evacuation center is also open at Woodmere Park, located at 3951 Woodmere Park Boulevard in Venice.

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