Manatee County Commissioners get update on more flooding near Lake Manatee

Pilachowski stressed that the dam is not a flood control structure but that the county does try to provide some relief and buffering from the Manatee River flows with the dam where it can.

BRADENTON — At Tuesday’s land use meeting, Manatee County Commissioners received an update on the status of Lake Manatee following reports of widespread flooding in the area on Wednesday evening.

Deputy County Administrator Evan Pilachowski, who oversees Utilities, Public Works, and Financial Management, addressed commissioners and led with the following statement.

“I do want to state unequivocally that the dam and Lake Manatee continue to function as designed. They are structurally sound. There’s no risk of any sort of breach of the damn. I just want to make that clear.”

Pilachowski explained that the area experienced the second day of significant rainfall in and around the dam watershed. He said widespread areas received three to four additional inches of rain and isolated areas received six to eight inches, all in about 36 hours.

Pilachowski said that soils are saturated, stormwater ponds are full, and culverts are at capacity. With significant rain falling on an already saturated rainwater system, the water simply doesn’t have anywhere to go but to continue to run over land, and the flooding on Waterline Road and Dam Road is owed to the system being saturated and overloaded.