Downpour floods St. Armands, frays merchants' nerves again

A stubborn thunderstorm last week dumped a downpour on Sarasota, which brought fast-rising floodwaters to St. Armands Circle.

Sarasota County officials, who are responsible for stormwater in the shopping and dining district and the rest of the city, attributed the slow drainage to a failed sensor that prevented one of the five pumps in the circle from starting. It has since been repaired.

Data from University of South Florida’s real-time rainfall tracker indicates about 2.2 inches of rain fell on St. Armands Circle in two hours. That storm came during high tide, according to Sarasota County, which contributed to the slow runoff.

Mackenzie Taflinger, sous chef at Café on St. Armands, was working the night of Thursday, July 23 when the rainstorm started. The Café avoided the worst of it, but its next door neighbor, Cha Cha Coconuts, was impacted, she said.

“It got about halfway up their patio,” Taflinger said.

Cha Cha Coconuts General Manager Emily Ranney wasn’t at the restaurant on July 23, but said water was pooling on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant where the café has outdoor seating. Ranney said consistent flooding can negatively impact business for everyone on the Circle.

“It definitely poses a threat if it’s flooding,” Ranney said. “After two years ago, we’re kind of over the whole water situation with the hurricanes. PTSD.”

Storm surge and heavy rains brought by two hurricanes in 2024 inundated St. Armands Circle, prompting days of closures for businesses — some of which never reopened — and cries from the community for better solutions to long-existing flooding problems.

Across the street from Cha Cha’s, drainage was hunky dory, according to Le Macaron French Pastries Manager Alfredo Pareds.

“Over the years on this side, when there’s a lot of rain for a couple of hours, it floods on the Columbia, Cha Cha, Venezia side a lot more than over here,” he said. “On Thursday night, we all had the same amount of water, but on this side it wasn’t as bad. You could still walk. There were a couple puddles and whatnot, but over there, it was water everywhere.''

Café on St. Armands Assistant Manager Jason Simpson said flooding is a recurring issue. Even before Hurricane Helene’s notorious destruction, normal rainstorms have flooded the restaurant.

 “At that time, we had been getting a lot of rain, so it didn’t have anywhere to go. It actually came all the way up over these bricks, in through our front window and into our dining room,” Simpson said. “It was a consistent rain, and it was a summer when we were getting a lot of rain, so a lot of the retention ponds were full. Also, the alley behind us floods really quickly as well, so the water started coming in the back door as well. It’s been a constant thing, and I think people have a lot of concerns about what is the long-standing solution to this.”

County commissioners, with the guidance of Stormwater Department Director Ben Quartermaine, dedicated $13.7 million late last year to fund what they viewed are the most critical elements of a plan to boost St. Armands’ flood resiliency. These include retrofitting pump stations and generators to improve reliability and capacity; installing tide check valves to prevent seawater from entering the drainage system during storm surge events; and maybe, if there is enough left over, some permeable pavement in strategic locations.

The county said it expects a design team to be under contract in the next few months, followed by permitting and construction-ready plans by early to mid-2027.