Cape Coral's water woes: From famine to flooding in only four months

It's already been a pretty remarkable year for Cape Coral when it comes to water — too little and now, too much.

Only four short months ago, Cape Coral residents and businesses were dealing with a strict watering schedule as a result of some of the severest drought conditions to hit Southwest Florida in recent years.

Lawns were brown and water levels in canals were at historic lows.

In our story published on April 20 written by reporter Frank Bumb with the headline "Weather rules over Cape Coral water shortage woes", everyone from city officials to weather experts were talking about what had become a major crisis.

In the story, Tyler Fleming, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Tampa Bay office, said Lee County — like much of Florida — "is being hit by an exceptionally dry season. Lee County is in a D2 or severe drought according to the National Weather Service's Drought Index. D4 is the worst level of drought and Lee County could potentially hit D3 before the dry season is over."

At a Cape Coral council meeting in April there was a discussion about building a pipeline to send treated wastewater from Fort Myers to Cape Coral to  help feed millions more gallons of water into its canals and the irrigation water system that uses those hundreds of miles of canals.

Fast forward to the last three days and it has been a far different story for Cape Coral and all of Southwest Florida as a tropical disturbance has dumped as much as 10 inches of water in some locations.

Saturday streets throughout the Cape were looking more like the canals that were reaching historic high water levels. Some residents were  kayaking and swimming in their front yards. The lawns that so many homeowners were concerned about back in April were submerged in several inches of water.

Weather forecasts call for the rain to taper off Sunday and the water levels will start to recede.

The next weather question everyone will be asking next?

When's the first cold front coming to Southwest Florida?

MORE CAPE CORAL WATER COVERAGE

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