A car plows through a flooded street in St. Augustine. | News4Jax
Published on October 27, 2026 at 3:59 pm
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Parts of St. Augustine were underwater Monday morning as king tides, rain and wind combined to push water levels 2 feet above what was expected — swamping streets near Flagler College and City Hall.
Jessica Beach, the city’s chief resiliency officer, worked throughout the day monitoring flooded roads around the city.
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She said the timing of a nor’easter made an already challenging season significantly worse.
“We’re in the peak of our king tide season, so we had a nor’easter pop up that coincided with king tides,” Beach said. “There’s a lot of flood advisories that were issued by our emergency management system from St. Johns County.”
Beach explained that much of the city’s storm drain system relies on gravity — and that works fine under normal conditions. But king tide season changes everything.
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“On a normal tide, it’s usually not an issue, but when we get into the king tides like this time of year, it’s extreme tides, and so that water is finding any weak point,” she said.
Video from lower-lying areas showed residents using kayaks to navigate the floodwaters.
Holding back the Matanzas River
Beach said the city has studied large-scale solutions, including a review by the Army Corps of Engineers.
“We looked through citywide comprehensively, the Army Corps of Engineers Back Bay Study, and to keep that out, you’re looking at flood walls and pump stations — you’re basically looking to hold back the entire Matanzas River, which, that’s a pretty tall feat,” she said.
However, the city recently completed a drainage improvement project in one of the affected neighborhoods. Beach said the system is functioning as designed, but the king tides are presenting challenges.
“The good news is that the storm system is working great,” Beach said. “The bad news is that when the Matanzas River overtops ground elevations, this is where the flooding is actually coming from.”
Classes canceled at Flagler College
For students at Flagler College, the flooding meant a late start — but not necessarily a dry one.
Maeve McCann, a Flagler College student, said classes before noon were canceled. But the delay didn’t keep her completely out of the water.
“Yeah, except not really, because I’m still walking through floods,” she said.
This story was produced by News4Jax, a Jacksonville Today news partner.
