Millions of dollars spent on flood protection, but is it out of date?

Cynthia Slater, 68, stands on sandbags leftover from Hurricane Ian, which flooded her home along with her neighbors with 3 feet of water. Slater has had her home flooded and gutted four times in 20 years after four separate storm events. She lives in Midtown, a neighborhood in Daytona Beach built about 30 years ago as affordable housing for first-time homeowners. However, residents, like Slater, have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in repairs. After Hurricane Ian flooded the neighborhood in 2022, Slater went to the Daytona Beach City Council meeting demanding change and better protections.(Joe Mario Pedersen / Central Florida Public Media)

Water was seeping in under Cynthia Slater’s Daytona Beach front door. It was 2022, and Hurricane Ian had already flooded the streets of her Midtown neighborhood. She had planned to stay, but it only took about 60 minutes for the flood waters to inch their way from the road to her door...
Slater, 68, knew she had to go. She had abandoned her home to water three times before.
“I had to wade out, get in my car. And I had to drive across the neighbor's lawn because I couldn't drive in the street,” she said.
Slater said she returned home two days later. Her living room was 3 feet underwater. She was greeted by a sickening wet smell wafting through her living room and knew that mold was on its way…
“Here we go again,” she said looking at her ruined home.
She knew the drill. Slater began moving everything out. She bought fans to begin the drying process and called contractors to begin gutting the walls.
Cynthia Slater's home after Hurricane Ian brought 3-feet of water inside. Slater said she still remembers coming home after the storm and a sickening wet smell greeting her inside. It wasn't quite mold, yet. But she knew mold was soon to come. (Cynthia Slater)

Ian marked the fourth hurricane in 20 years that brought Slater’shouse to ruin. The first was Hurricane Charley in 2004 and then Matthew in 2016 followed by Hurricane Irma in 2017.,
“It was like back to back,” she said. “I can't take this anymore.”
Slater has lived in Daytona Beach all her life and has noticed the flooding getting worse. Even without a hurricane, she said a strong rainstorm would flood her road.
Daytona Beach is an example of a local municipality facing a Sisyphean hill to climb when preparing for the next big storm.
“The greatest challenge to local governments comes from rapidly changing flood risk profiles,” said Kelly Kibler, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Central Florida.
Local governments are spending millions of dollars to better meet flood challenges. However, preparing for another Hurricane Ian isn’t viewed as economically wise as experts estimate the cost of preparations would far outweigh the economic benefit. That line of thinking is based on the way historical storm patterns impact a geographic area. However, as powerful storms become more frequent, the government's reliance on historical storm data to control the level of flood mitigation is being called into question.
“It’s the definition of insanity”
A week after Ian, Slater went to a Daytona Beach City Council meeting. During public comment, She approached the dias and laid out before the council four pairs of wading boots.
“These are all of the boots that I had to purchase because of all of the (20) years of flooding,” Slater said. “I refuse to continue to invest in a home where as soon as it is repaired, two months, one year, two years down the road, we're flooded again and again and again.”
Video of this meeting shows the city council silently nodding in agreement.
“It's the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over and over again and getting the same results if we fix our homes,” Slater said.
Cynthia Slater, 68, speaking at the Daytona Beach City Council meeting a week after Hurricane Ian flooded her Midtown home. On her right, are four pairs of wading boots. Slater bought each pair after a storm flooded out her home, which has happened four times in less than 20 years.(City of Daytona Beach )

Today Slater’s home looks fine. She has new furniture and the walls have been replaced. You can hardly tell it was destroyed by a flood, but her retirement account shows the scars. After insurance and FEMA paid $75,000, Slater had to dip into her retirement account for an extra $15,000 to cover the rest. In nearly 20 years, Slater has put in about half a million dollars into repairs of her home.
Insurance and FEMA have helped, but it was never enough to cover all the damages. In the wake of Ian, Slater is left with a thought. If stronger storms are getting more frequent, why is she putting money toward repairs, instead of the city investing in improved flood mitigation?
Midtown was just swamp and trees when Slater was a kid in the 50s. She is the youngest of seven children. Her dad worked as a carpenter and her mom a maid. Slater ...

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