Florida residents urged to evacuate flood-ravaged homes

EMERGENCY officials urged the evacuation yesterday of more than 600 homes downstream from Lake Manatee after a flood gate on a dam holding back the lake jammed closed.

Some nearby homes were already flooding yesterday morning. In the lake, the water level was five feet higher than normal, and rain in the region was sending water streaming into the lake faster than two open flood gates could release it into the river below.

Crews with cranes and cables tried without success to pry open a third gate that jammed shut late Saturday. Without that third gate open, water was expected to begin spilling over the dam, about 15 miles east of Bradenton.

“That lake is going to get so full it's going to get to the emergency spillways,” said Larry Leinhauser, spokesman for Manatee County public safety emergency operations. “The problem is we've never used them.”

Engineers said the concrete dam wouldn't be damaged, but Leinhauser said residents living in a mostly rural area stretching along the Manatee River for about four miles west of the lake were "strongly advised" to leave Sunday morning.

The lake normally is 38 feet deep but was at nearly 43 feet and rising 8,000 cubic feet per second yesterday.