Severe flooding puts damper on Florida Keys

Key Largo, Florida Keys

EXTREME high tides have turned streets into canal-like swamps in the Florida Keys, with armies of mosquitoes and the stench of stagnating water filling the air, and residents worried rising sea levels will put a damper on property values in the island chain.

On Key Largo, a tropical isle famous for snorkelling and fishing, the floods began in late September.

While people expected high tides due to the season and the influence of a super moon, they were taken by surprise when a handful of streets in the lowest-lying neighbourhoods stayed inundated for nearly a month with 40cm of saltwater.

By early November, the road…