LAKELAND, Fla. — Some residents of a Lakeland mobile home park are looking for answers and action after their community has flooded repeatedly through the years during even moderately-heavy rainstorms. The latest flooding event happened Monday, July 8 during an afternoon shower.
- The neighbors who contacted ABC Action News live at Citrus Center Colony, a mobile home park on W. Beacon Rd. in Lakeland.
- Neighbors blame the community’s stormwater infrastructure for the flood problems; “There’s no way for it to drain,” one neighbor told us. “The pipes are not big enough.”
- The community is for residents 55 and older.
(The following is a recap of the full broadcast story which aired during Tampa Bay Tonight.)
It’s a memory that still gets Brenda Brown choked up.
In June of last year, a torrent of floodwater surrounded and then inundated her 73-year-old mother’s mobile home at the Citrus Center Colony in Lakeland.
“She gets upset, and then I get upset,” Brown said of the episode.
According to Brown and others who live in the mobile home park, the community is no stranger to flooding.
It not only happened last June, but less severe flooding happened just days ago, during an afternoon rainstorm.
Brown believes the flood threat is putting her mother and others in the 55-and-older community at risk.
“We don’t have the income to put her in assisted living, nor do we have the income to just up and root her to another mobile home, because, you know, the cost of living in 2024 is a hindrance,” she said. “It’s just horrible.”
Brown and others are speaking up because they think the community’s owners can and should do more.
They think the community’s stormwater infrastructure is to blame.
“As far as the piping goes, we had a past manager — three years ago — tell us that the pipes are this big, and what we need is the mobile home park to dig up the roads and incorporate bigger pipes that are this big or bigger to take in all of the water,” Brown said.
Kent Henry lives in Citrus Center Colony and says his car was damaged in the flood last June.
“I had probably six to eight inches of water inside my truck,” he said. “It got into the electrical system and did about $300 worth of damage.”
What’s more frustrating to Henry? According to documents provided to ABC Action News, lot rent, the monthly payment required to park a mobile home at the park, has steadily increased yet the flood problem continues.
“I think they need to bring it up to a reasonable living standard for what we’re paying,” Henry said.
Henry is hoping for action as soon as possible in the middle of what could be a very active hurricane season.
Until then, he believes his neighbors remain in a vulnerable state.
“They could need to get out of their home for something, and they could have an emergency, and they’re going to have a hard time getting out of their home,” he said.
So far, ABC Action News has been unable to reach management or ownership of Citrus Center Colony.
