South Florida - Wednesday September 6, 2023: Hurricane Idalia had little impact on the already high-water levels in Lake Okeechobee. Army Corps Col. James Booth told reporters during the weekly Lake O update that Hurricane Idalia dropped only two to three inches of rain over the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes region last week, and just about all of that was absorbed before reaching the Lake.
“We didn’t see a whole lot of rainfall from the hurricane in particular.," said Col. Booth. "So, we likely are going to see about the same amount of the flow (into Lake O) that we have been over the last few weeks.”
The Corps has been sticking to their wet season strategy of not releasing any water into the St. Lucie Estuary. Only minimal amounts have been released down into the Caloosahatchee. However, even those releases to the west were suspended last week as Hurricane Idalia approached. "Due to the likelihood that we could possible see rain and storm surge from Hurricane Idalia we didn’t flow any water from Lake Okeechobee into the Caloosahatchee," said Booth," just as a preventative for any downstream impact.”
As of Tuesday, the Lake level was 15-point-36 feet, two-and-a-half feet higher than this time last year, and just over a foot short of the 16-and-a-half-foot level that could force higher release volumes. “If you look at our numbers, I think this is the third week no change in the lake levels. And that’s basically showing that what’s coming in is roughly matching what evaporation is pulling off the lake.”
The concern of course continues to be that high Lake levels will force the release toxic algae from the Lake into the estuaries, but as of Monday the latest satellite images showed a minimal algae bloom covering just 60 square miles of the Lake. The wet season release schedule resumed this week, unchanged.