ZEPHYRHILLS, Fla. — Ferman Geiger’s cattle are running out of dry land. Just a small corner of their once lush pasture is available for grazing.
That’s because much of his property just outside Zephyrhills city limits is now underwater.
“Just acres, and acres, and acres of water,” he said.
Geiger lives off Simons Road just north of the Silverado Golf Course. He says the flooding on his property is not an act of God but rather a man-made problem.
According to Geiger and others, stormwater traditionally flowed from his property south through the neighboring Silver Oaks subdivision and Silverado Golf Course, and then further south toward Lake Zephyr and the Hillsborough River.
Now, a lot of the water isn’t draining from the area near Geiger’s property, and the water that has drained into the golf course has flooded a wide swatch of it and is creeping closer and closer to houses along the fairways.
Local and state crews are trying to use a series of pumps and hoses to manually move the water along its natural path, but, after days of heavy rain, those crews have temporarily halted the pumps so as not to flood homes south of the golf course.
“Mother Nature had this worked out, and they took it out,” Geiger said.
Geiger and others believe the area’s growth has disrupted the natural flow of stormwater, with new housing developments adding to the problem.
Though the area has a long history of flooding, Geiger said the current flood happened faster and the water now drains much slower or not at all.
“Most of what was a floodplain for the water to gently rise onto can’t because it’s now homes,” he said. “Nature has been altered.”
ABC Action News asked Zephyrhills City Manager Billy Poe if development is contributing to the area's flooding problem.
“I would say development probably plays into it. I will also say, living here my entire life, the areas that are flooded — you know, Silver Oaks and to the north — have always flooded,” he said.
“From an engineer standpoint, you’re right, I can’t answer that. From a visual standpoint, there are houses. There is development in the area. That, in conjunction with it being a low-lying area that has historically flooded, it’s not a good combination,” Poe continued.
What he can say for sure is that a long-term fix is needed in the area of the golf course.
“We need to sit down after we get through this and figure out: Is there a solution, what that solution is, where the funding for that solution comes from,” he said.
Geiger agrees a fix is needed.
“It would help everybody,” he said.
However, he isn’t sure local leaders will follow through once the imminent problem with flooding passes, but Geiger believes the problem will not be going away and will only worsen over time.
“I mean, having to pump the water from one place to another, to another makes no sense. It would make a lot more sense to correct the situation and bring back the natural flow,” he said.
