ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Pinellas County environmental management has installed 11 new tidal gauge sensors around the peninsula over the summer, which will provide real-time data for flood-prone areas during king tides and storm surge.
“So, having that real localized data is really important to us,” said Rob Burnes, environmental management project manager. “Especially when you’re talking about a matter of inches and feet for flooding roads and flooding structures.”
Burnes said the county realized after last year’s back-to-back hurricanes that it had a blind spot in some areas. At that time, the county was relying on two tidal gauge sensors. The only one for west Pinellas was a NOAA sensor located at Clearwater Beach.
“So we really focused on trying to get some stations on the west side that would give us that information,” he said. “As well as we knew we had some trouble points within the county that we wanted to get better ideas of what was going on flooding wise.”
Pinellas Public Works contracted with Hohonu to install 11 tidal gauge sensors, which encircle the county from Weedon Island to Fort DeSoto to Boca Ciega and Tarpon Springs, bringing the total to 13 sensors. Each sensor costs $3,000 per year to operate, according to Burnes.
“What we’re trying to do is really just get an idea in these distinct parts around the county,” he said. “So we have a good idea of what’s going on real time with the flooding conditions.”
The real-time data from the ultrasonic sensors is available to the public, which can be very helpful for residents living in flood-prone areas.
“You can see this data,” said Burnes. “You can see all the sites we have with the county.”
The county will use the water level gauges to better understand and communicate the threat of flooding in real-time.
“So, being able to have this data, being able to have this data quickly and in real time, it’s huge,” Burnes said. “Again, it lets us get out, gets a message to emergency management, gets the message to our operations people, and then gets the message out to the public, ‘Hey, you might need to pay attention to what’s going on here.’”
Josh Rojas
Source link