Titusville's mayor fears major flooding north of the eye of Hurricane Milton

Titusville Mayor Dan Diesel points out that television weather coverage of the approaching, powerful Hurricane Milton constantly mentions Melbourne and Daytona Beach – not Titusville – while describing the storm's expected path across Florida's east coast.

But Diesel fears his North Brevard town of about 50,000 could face dangerous flooding from torrential rains and damage from howling hurricane winds along the northern part of Milton's Eye, the central core.

“We are full. Our city is saturated from the rain we just had and we've had a pretty wet season. There are places where there is standing water in the medians,” Diesel said.

“I went to a lake on Park Avenue that is now about to overflow. And there is at least 15 centimeters of rain to come – and it could be up to 12 centimeters. So the flooding worries me. The St. Johns River “took everything it could take,” he said.

More: Hurricane Milton: Weather could be wilder in Titusville, North Brevard than in Melbourne and Palm Bay

“Everything is saturated. Flooding in our area, at least street flooding, yard flooding – I hope not house flooding – we need to be aware of that,” he said.

Titusville City Hall officials activated an emergency command center at fire department headquarters at 8 a.m. Wednesday. In an update Wednesday morning, National Weather Service meteorologists at the Melbourne station warned of life-threatening flash flooding north of central Milton, with some areas accumulating 10 to 15 or more inches of rainfall.

A Wednesday morning NWS map depicting Milton's flood precipitation potential showed that Titusville is within the geographic boundary of “extreme” flooding, the highest level in east-central Florida. This “extreme” zone could result in numerous evacuations and rescue operations, “overwhelmingly” overcrowded rivers and streams and very dangerous driving conditions.

“We have to be very careful. We don’t have to go out and try to explore,” Diesel said.

“As soon as the wind dies down, as mayor I should be one of the few people out in my city car and see what we got. “We will not take any risks and go anywhere near failed power sources,” etc.,” he said.

Diesel said he didn't notice many residents installing shutters or boarding up windows Tuesday, but he noted the demand for sandbags was overwhelming.

“I have to say I feel really good about it because people are taking (Milton) seriously,” Diesel said.

“When I looked at the sandbags over at the Chain of Lakes, there was a five-mile line to get in. And it stayed the same throughout the day. And then, for the people who didn't, I went downstairs.” “405 and there were at least eight cars stopped on the side of the road making their own bags,” he said.

Rick Neale is a space reporter for FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Neale at [email protected]. Twitter/X: @RickNeale1

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