‘It kept climbing’: Bradenton residents say Debby flooding unlike anything they’ve seen

BRADENTON, Fla. (WFLA) — Parts of Lincoln Road in Bradenton looked like a river — something longtime resident’s say they’ve never seen before.

“It kept climbing. And it climbed real fast. We got probably a foot and a half to two feet more water than we, I’ve ever seen here,” Stev Lease said.

Lease was dragging a canoe across the water Tuesday. He tied it to a pole just in case he needed to get back to his house before the water recedes.

“We’re gonna have to find a place to live,” Lease said. “Everything in our house that’s from the mattress down is gone.”

He described a mud bath in his home, and said he thinks it’ll be Thursday before he can get back inside.

“The water started coming up so fast, we just bailed and we got one truck out. And we have three cars that we lost,” Lease said.

A woman trying to get to her house on the other side of Lincoln Road described her loss.

“I have two cars there, a golf cart, it’s all under water, and all my furniture on the Lanai is all covered,” Susan Brown said. “It was when I left, and it’s actually gone up since I left.”

She was evacuated yesterday and said the water was already causing problems.

At the end of her street, a truck can be seen surrounded by water.

She could barely describe her feelings after seeing this.

“I don’t know. Just overwhelmed,” Brown said.

Residents said this was an eye opener and that the real cleaning and assessments of their homes will start once the water clears out.

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