HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — Hillsborough County is inviting people to a series of meetings to get public input about the impacts of seasonal rainfall and last year’s storms.
“It was really rough,” said Bob Wills.
That's the simplest way to describe what neighbors in the Featherock community in Valrico dealt with after Hurricane Milton, including Wills.
“We couldn't get to the house,” said Wills. “Took me 16 days, and I came back early. There was still water."
Concerned neighbors reached out to ABC Action News last October when the area was underwater.
“Our community was flooded, and many of our families were displaced because of the flooding,” said neighbor Marie Maughan. “They did not have access to their homes because the flood was over three feet deep."
Six months later, the community is getting back to normal.
WATCH: Hillsborough County looking for public input on flooding impacts at upcoming meetings
"The people are all back, but again, we're worried about this coming year because if it floods again, what do we do?" said Wills.
Hillsborough County engaged an outside engineering firm to do an independent study of the impacts of last year's severe rain events on stormwater infrastructure.
Now, county leaders are looking for the public's input in a series of meetings.
“The public outreach portion of this is to hear what the public has to say and document their experiences during the storm,” said Mikhal Moberg, Hillsborough County’s Flood Protection Engineering Manager.
The meetings will look at the extent of the impact, potential regional flood mitigation, and resiliency strategies.
“Some residents may have different areas that flooded that they're not aware of,” said Moberg. “It's a very wide and diverse county, so we want to make sure that everybody's voice is heard."
Maughan is one of the neighbors we met last October.
We asked her what she thinks the county can learn from what her neighborhood went through.
“The county can help us by moving water out of lakes and retention ponds if we're expecting a lot of rainfall from a hurricane and clearing the canals so they can move the water efficiently,” she said. "We just have to do our part to prepare for the hurricane and do the best that we can."
Here is a full list of the eight meetings to get public input:
- 6:30 p.m. April 15 -- Pierce Middle School, 5511 N. Hesperides St., Tampa, FL 33614
- 6:30 p.m. April 22 -- Riverview Public Library, 9951 Balm Riverview Rd., Riverview, FL 33569
- 6 p.m. April 23 -- Carrollwood Cultural Center, 4537 Lowell Rd., Tampa, FL 33618
- 5:30 p.m. April 29 -- Plant City High School cafeteria, 1 Raider Pl., Plant City, FL 33563
- 6:30 p.m. May 7 -- Jan Kaminis Platt Regional Library, 3910 S. Manhattan Ave., Tampa, FL 33611
- 6 p.m. May 12 -- University Area Community Development Corporation, Inc., 14013 N. 22nd St., Tampa, FL 33613
- 5:30 p.m. May 15 -- Jimmie B. Keel Regional Public Library, 2902 W. Bearss Ave., Tampa, FL 33618
- 6 p.m. May 19 -- Lennard High School, 2342 E. Shell Point Rd., Ruskin, FL 33570
Residents can also provide input virtually from April 15 to May 19 at HCFL.gov/HCengage.
