Neighbors help homeowner flooded on Lake Poinsett

St. Johns River system at major flood stage

COCOA, Fla. – Neighbors are helping neighbors during record flooding on Lake Poinsett, part of the St. Johns River system.

"We came up 3 or 4 inches in a couple hours," said Heron Road resident Cindi Shamrock about flooding Friday.

Shoveling sand into sandbags and running a pump, Shamrock and 20 of her neighbors attended to Mira Chapman's home on the Heron Road cul-de-sac. Chapman is a widow in her 70s whose home on the lake had water inside Friday.

"The water came rushing back. It just overtook everything," Shamrock described the flooding at Chapman's house.

Dozens of sandbags lined her driveway Friday.

"We barricaded all this off to pull the water away from her house. The water is starting to draw out of the house, so it's working," Shamrock said.

County workers are still monitoring road conditions across all parts of Brevard County.

News 6 watched Friday as North Indian River Drive in Cocoa was still underwater.

"River road is crazy right now. You can clearly see that the river is coming onto the road," Brookhill Drive resident Suzanne Strickland said.

Fortunately for riverfront neighbors, heavy winds and rain seen earlier in the week did not occur Friday.

"It was like another hurricane, really. It woke me up in the middle of the night," Strickland described the conditions on North Indian River Drive earlier this week.


About the Author:

James joined News 6 in March 2016 as the Brevard County Reporter. His arrival was the realization of a three-year effort to return to the state where his career began. James is from Pittsburgh, PA and graduated from Penn State in 2009 with a degree in Broadcast Journalism.

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