LAKELAND, Fla. — It all happened so fast. One second, Misty Wells had a lakefront home. Next second, her home was part of Lake Bonny in Lakeland.
“It’s very nerve-racking, especially when you first see it start coming into the house. You go into complete panic mode,” she said.
Her home along Lake Bonny had never flooded before until Hurricane Milton.
As buckets of rain fell, flooded streets became flooded yards, flooded yards became flooded driveways, and flooded driveways became flooded homes.
“When we saw the water coming in, we all just freaked out, and we acted really fast when it started to pour into the house,” said Kylie, Wells’ daughter.
Even days after Milton passed, the water continued to rise. Wells believes the flooding has finally stabilized. Her home took on at least nine inches of water. The home is likely a total loss.
“It’s not so much losing the house. It’s that the memories are literally floating in the lake now,” Wells said.
Kevin Cook, a spokesperson for the City of Lakeland, said the area has experienced unprecedented rainfall.
“The issue — especially in the Central Florida area — we’ve had unprecedented rainfall over the summer,” he said. “A lot of this water has nowhere to go. The natural flow takes it to these outflows, but because they’re so high, it’s just having a hard time flowing.”
Cook said the city is trying to help the Wells family and dozens of others whose homes around Lake Bonny have flooded.
“I can tell you that since August 5th of this year, we have been pumping water religiously day in and day out — 24 hours a day — pumping water to Lake Parker to get those waters down,” he said.
But Wells said it’s hard to tell if the city’s effort makes a difference.
Luckily, she has flood insurance and a place to stay. However, she’s hoping to put a spotlight on her neighborhood. She’s hoping for a fix for help for the neighbors who will need it.
“My heart breaks for everybody down here,” she said.
10 days after our story aired, the City of Lakeland announced a new mitigation strategy for the area. The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers is bringing in two industrial water pumps from Clewiston and plans to have them in place by October 23.
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