‘You couldn’t see any one inch of land’: Palm Valley resident says development worsened flooding after heavy rains

Canal Boulevard in St. Johns County was underwater for much of the morning and into the afternoon. By about 6 p.m., the water had mostly cleared from the roadway, though a “road underwater” sign remained posted and standing water lingered in yards and along roadsides. One neighbor told News4JAX off camera that flooding on the road is a frequent problem when it rains.Long-time resident Tab Baer said the scene Wednesday morning was unlike anything he had seen in years.“You couldn’t see any one inch of land out here this morning,” Baer said.The closure of nearby South Roscoe Boulevard compounded the problem.“They shut down South Roscoe, so it put 10 times as much traffic on this road,” Baer said.Baer attributed the severity of the flooding in part to development that replaced the area’s natural swampland.“Years ago, you had all the big swamps around here,” he said. “It’s all developed land now. So it’s different than when [Hurricane] Dora came through. So Dora might have put out a lot mor