Flooding problems continue in Colerain Oaks community in St. Marys after Debby, neighbors say

ST. MARYS, Ga. — People living in the Colerain Oaks community in St. Marys said the roads there continue to have flooding problems since Hurricane Debby impacted the area earlier this month.

Action News Jax’s Shanila Kabir spent the morning in the area and spoke with residents who said the City of St. Marys needs to step in and replace an outdated drainage system.

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Many neighbors said their cars are getting ruined by a “pond” they have to drive through every day. They said some days it is impossible to get through it and many said they want to break their lease because of these conditions.

“It’s continuous every time we get heavy rain and hurricanes. Actually, it’s usually much worse. Today is much milder than most days,” Robert Walker said.

RELATED: ‘It rains for days, we flood out:’ St. Marys rental community is facing a longstanding flooding problem

Long-time resident Earl Robinson said he lives in the back of the Colerain Oaks neighborhood, and he said he and his neighbors are forced to walk or even miss work when the flooding is more than a foot high.

“It disturbs a whole lot of people’s lives. We’re constantly thinking about we’re going to get to work and how we’re going to drive through. Many people’s cars have stalled out along this road,” Robinson said.

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Neighborhood manager Lynelle Davis said this is because of a long-time drainage issue under Colerain Road and she believes the city needs to start with ditching through the underground culvert.

“I’ve been complaining since January to have the ditches cleaned out. The city came out almost two weeks ago and cut the tops of the cat tail off that were in the ditch and then let them fold over and be a larger problem.”

St. Marys City Manager Robby Horton told Action News Jax it met with the community’s property manager the day after Hurricane Debby hit the area.

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He said in a statement:

“The real issue is the volume of rain in a short period of time overloading the already saturated ditches, and outfalls. We are working hard to get the repairs on the equipment so that we can finish digging out the ditches.”

Neighbors say they hope this issue is resolved sooner than later, especially if another hurricane impacts Southeast Georgia.

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