‘Had to make a tough call:’ Fernandina Beach closes sports fields due to flooding

NASSAU COUNTY, Fla. — The First Alert Weather Team spent Wednesday evening tracking flooding, which led to rough conditions in Fernandina Beach.

The rain has been relentless, and some sports fields are left looking like wetlands.

“It’s been super wet, it’s been rainy, and yea it’s been crazy,” Fernandina Beach resident Mike Pefferle said.

Pefferle said areas that don’t usually flood are pooling up with water. Main Beach Park is one of them.

“This is not like a normal pond or nothing, this is just like rain runoff,” Pefferle said. “And the other night it was all the up to that black pole - it was like waist high.”

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City officials said the grounds are so saturated they had to shut down several sports fields for the rest of the week. They include Central Park (Baseball and Football), Ybor Alvarez Complex, Joe Velardi Field, Peck Field, Hickory Street Fields and

Charles Albert Field and Practice Fields.

Because of this, the youth sports practices were canceled.

“We had to make a tough call today as a city,” Mayor Bradley Bean said. “Our practice fields for our youth sports have been just overtaken. If you try to set foot, you sink in several inches of water.”

Mayor Bean said his number one concern is safety. He said the sports fields were shut down to protect the fields and the kids.

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City officials said they have closed sports fields before, but not for this expected length of time.

“What we’re experiencing, it’s not a hurricane, but the flooding is as if it was,” Mayor Bean said. “And as you just said, the flooding is comparable to [Hurricanes] Matthew or Irma, and we knew how bad those affected our community as well.”

The city is partnering with the Nassau County Emergency Management team to help keep the flooding at bay.

Our Action News Jax First Alert Weather teams says Fernandina Beach has already had more than 14 inches of rain in the past 10 days and there is still more to come.

“I hope it stops, I’m just sick of being wet every day,” Pefferle said.

Officials are warning, if you see standing water, don’t drive through it. And, if you a see a clogged storm drain, don’t try to unclog it yourself, let the city handle it.

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