13-minute read
The rising waters that flooded homes in south Lakeland’s Lake Seward basin after Hurricane Milton could have been avoided if Polk County officials had heeded the recommendations of two reports by engineering firms, area residents charge.
Two engineering firms in 1996 and 2005 gave Polk County commissioners seven options to fix the flooding in the Lake Seward basin, but county officials followed up on only parts of two of the recommendations.
The reports followed flooding in 1994 and 2004. Now that the area has flooded again, county officials implemented one of the costliest options, but not in time to spare seven homes from floodwaters.
Polk County records show that flooding of the Lake Seward basin has been an issue dating back 30 years, with two nasty reminders in 2004 and 2017 and now another one following Hurricane Milton.
“My whole life is gone.” On a Friday about three weeks ago, Tracy Boyette, donned chest-high waders and paddled via kayak to her bright yellow home on Oakmont Lane. That was the only way to get to her house.
“I’m the one that lost everything,” said Boyette. “My whole life has gone.”
The floodwaters have crawled out of her and her neighbors’ homes, but it left behind a toxic sludge and mold.
Asking for help: Hillsborough County firefighter Jarrod Smith, 43, has been complaining about flooding issues of the Lake Seward basin since at least 2017 following Hurricane Irma, while other neighbors along Oakmont Lane have asked county commissioners to do something since 1994.
“We’re on day 15 after the hurricane,” Smith said during the last week of October as he stood looking over water that was at least 25 feet deep in an area that was dry in June. Flood water swallowed his barn, swimming pool, backyard barbeque and entered his house.
Across the lake, he could see county workers installing pumps and pipes at the end of the Jenna Mae Way Circle in the Highlands Grace subdivision.
Polk County coordinated with the Southwest Florida Water Management District to install the pump on the northwest side of Lake Seward, The Ledger reported. They connected 3,000 feet of rubber pipes, which run to a storm drain on Tillery Road, south of Clubhouse Road. County staff used more temporary pipes to funnel the water into the existing stormwater system, sending it to a county-managed pond north of Clubhouse Road near Elizabeth Place. The water will eventually drain into Banana Lake and then into Lake Hancock.
History of flooding: This is not the first time floodwaters have inundated homes along Oakmont Lane. In 1994, the area and several homes flooded. The next year, the Polk County Commission contracted with BCI/Bromwell and Carrier Inc. to do a study on the area and issue a technical memorandum: “Lake Seward Floodproofing Feasibility Study,” which listed seven options to ensure that the basin didn’t flood again.
In February 2005, Professional Engineering Consultants of Tampa issued a 58-page updated study following flooding from the 2004 triple hurricanes: Charley, Frances and Jeanne.
Closed basin: The report shows that while Lake Seward is 42 acres, the surrounding watershed is approximately 2,300 acres, with the lake being the lowest portion of the watershed area. The homes on Oakmont Lane sit adjacent to what Google Maps satellite images show is usually a dry lakebed.
The report states that there is no mechanism “by which stormwater entering the lake can exit. In other words, Lake Seward is considered a closed basin.”
Development: In 2004, neighbors pointed the finger at then-recent developments in the Lakeland Highlands area as contributing to the flooding. The report states that those developments “should be designed based on the Southwest Florida Water Management District’s criteria for ‘closed’ basins, such that for the 100-year, 24-hour storm event, the post-developed stormwater runoff volume discharged from a site is equal to or less than the pre-developed stormwater runoff volume.”
Between 1941 and 2004, the average annual rainfall for the Lake Seward area was 50.5 inches, but the report also shows that the cumulative four-year rainfall began increasing in the mid- to late-1960s by 1.6 inches per year.
It states these trends “may be an indicator as to why water levels in the Lake Seward basin continue to rise.
Partial solutions: Following the 1996 study, Polk County implemented two parts of one recommendation and “raised roughly 500 feet of Oakmont Lane so that the lowest elevation of the roadway is now approximately 130 feet … The 130-foot elevation for Oakmont Lane is now satisfactory for rainfall events up to and including the 50-year, 24-hour storm event.”
In addition, two homes were bought and demolished.
Option one: One of the seven solutions offered in 1996 and again in 2005 included buying and demolishing one to six more homes situated below the 100-year floodplain at 180% of the taxed value of the homes. The plan also called for raising the elevation of Oakmont Lane anywhere from 300 up to 1,200 feet. The costs for each raised elevation, depending on its length, and the purchase of one to six homes ranged from $389,300 to $1.658 million.
Option two: The second option was to create berm and levee floodproofing to isolate the lowest homes from the floodplain. It would involve a flapgate that would prevent backflow into Lake Seward. A lift station and surge basin would also be built. It would protect homes during a 25-year flood event. But, the report noted that “actual long-term water level conditions may change with the urbanization of the watershed and response to groundwater withdrawal reductions. Berm would be overtopped during extreme rainfall events.”
The 2005 cost was $118,000 to $143,000.
Option three: The third option was upstream water management by the county throughout the year, pumping water through three points into storage areas and using controlled lease practices. But it didn’t involve pumping water out of a flooded Lake Seward and provided minimal protection for residents.
The 2004 cost was nearly $250,000.
Option four: Alternative four was installing an emergency pump and 5,600 linear feet of pipe to facilitate moving water into Banana Lake. It would protect up to a 50-year rain event. The report called it the most viable option, but noted that it would have high operating costs of between $3,000 and $80,000 a year, with the initial installation cost of between $204,000 and $604,500.
Option Five: Plan five was constructing a drainage well that would run into the Floridan aquifer. According to the 1996 report, a six-inch drainage well was “the flood-relief mechanism during the 1950s.” The 2005 report noted that building a drainage well would include a pre-treatment system and would require a “long and tedious” permitting process from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. The cost in 2005 was about $235,000, with annual operating costs up to $20,000.
Option six: The sixth plan was a siphon, which the engineers noted would not be feasible.
Option seven: The seventh plan called for increasing the lake’s capacity by scraping down the sides of the lake to widen it. A smaller pump could also be used as a safety measure. But they would have needed to purchase adjacent land then — land that has since been sold and developed.
Optional eight: The final option was to do nothing.
“If persistent rain events occur over a short period of time or a significant rainfall event occurs (i.e., 100-year storm), lake levels will continue to rise until up to a point that some structures surrounding Lake Seward will continue to flood if no floodproofing alternatives are implemented,” the 2005 study states.
Lost homes: Once Oakmont Lane residents had to paddle by boat to reach their homes last month, county officials began implementing a version of option four. They recently brought out pumps and 5,600 feet of hose to move the water to Banana Lake.
It is not clear how much this is costing, or even if FEMA will help to pay for some or all of the cost.
“We are gathering costs, but we do not have anything to share,” said Jay Jarvis, director of the Polk County Roads & Drainage Division. “And we do not know yet if FEMA will reimburse.”
Jarvis said last week that no decision has been made as to whether a permanent pump and pipes will be installed.
But residents are infuriated that the county did the minimum recommended in the two studies by simply raising 500 feet of the road and buying and demolishing two houses. Jarvis said – and records show – that the two homes were purchased and demolished through a Federal Emergency Management Agency program prior to the first report.
And then nothing else was done.
“After the study was completed, we entered a time of weather where flooding was not a threat,” Jarvis said. Records show there was a drought in 2000. “Due to that, the county did not prioritize the implementation of a permanent pumping system for funding. Future discussions will occur after the current pumping operation” is completed.
Jarvis said another issue is protecting more homes downstream from flooding and protecting Bartow’s wastewater treatment facility.
“The city of Lakeland, city of Bartow, the Southwest Florida Water Management District and the county are all working together to monitor and ensure that there are no impacts to the areas downstream,” Jarvis said.
Development: Smith, who pulled senior citizens out of flooded homes in Hillsborough County after Hurricane Milton, came home after a three-day shift to find a rising waterbody, with the water from what officials are calling a 1,000-year flood event having no place to go but inside his home and those of six neighbors on Oakmont Lane.
Smith blames new subdivisions, including Highlands Grace across the lake — what is usually a dry bed. The subdivision, developed by Highlands Enterprises and built by Highland Homes, has a retention pond. Highlands Homes also built each house on raised foundations. The neighborhood sits on land higher than Oakmont Lane and it did not flood.
“All the neighborhoods have retaining walls and they’re just shrinking down the area to where the water would naturally go,” Smith said.
Highland Homes was founded in 1996 by father and son, Robert J. and Joel Adams. It has built more than 15,000 homes in Central Florida.
Highlands Enterprises is run by the Rogers Brothers, who have developed their former citrus groves and hardwood hammocks into multiple subdivisions throughout Lakeland. Dane Rogers, who helps to oversee the family company, could not be reached for comment.
‘No underestimating’: County Commissioner George Lindsey, who works in real estate, was an employee of Highland Homes 13 years ago and currently does business with them as a real estate broker. He said nothing could have prepared anyone for the flooding from Milton.
“There’s no underestimating what this storm has done. There’s no one alive today in Polk County that’s ever seen the kind of experience after Milton,” he said. “This wasn’t a hundred-year flood or even a 500-year, but closer to 1,000 years. All the modeling we’ve used in the industry works fine in the normal course of events. But when you have an abnormal course of events, nothing works. Sewer plants, power lines – lift stations were being taken offline; none of those things were built to anticipate a storm of this magnitude, so you learn from lessons and move forward.”
Lindsey has been a commissioner for 12 years and leaves office this week after reaching his term limit. He said it took local, state and federal agencies all working together to figure out a solution to the Lake Seward catastrophe, as well as the Lake Bonny flooding. But it was not a solution they could pull off a shelf and implement immediately. They also don’t want to flood other areas that are downstream.
Lindsey said FEMA will have to approve any buyout offers the county would administer.
“FEMA often provides the dollars to do that in a prescriptive method and if those homes qualify under those circumstances, then it would certainly get favorable consideration,” Lindsey said.
Building in a lakebed: He acknowledges that perhaps builders were to blame.
“The real question is, to look at the aerial photos for (at least) 14 years and ask why someone would build a home at the bottom of a dried-up lake. But that’s a rhetorical question,” Lindsey said.
The Polk County Property Appraiser’s website shows that four of the homes built on the edge of the Lake Seward basin were built in 1978 or 1979, while two were built in 1992 and 1993. All of those were built before the 1994 flood.
But the home at 5816 Oakmont Lane was built in 1999 — five years after the area flooded.
Asked last week why the county would issue a building permit for property that flooded, Lindsey said, “Private property owners have a right to make poor decisions and are responsible for their own due diligence.”
Lindsey said a survey of the property should have established a finish floor elevation, defined as “the top of the (slab) to which flooring finishes and materials are to be applied,” such as carpet, hardwood, laminate or vinyl.
County Manager Bill Beasley, Jarvis and County Director of the Office of Planning & Development Benjamin Dunn were asked why the property wasn’t flagged by the county as a high-flood risk and why the owners in 1999 weren’t apprised of that when they applied for their building permit. Dunn said last week they were searching their records for the application and permit.
“That house permit was not available, because of how old it was,” Dunn said Monday. “It falls outside of the records retention threshold.”
The homes and, in some cases, adjacent property, currently have a just market value on the property appraiser’s website of $300,000 up to $547,000, although several of the owners acknowledge they will never be able to sell them.
Rain records: A National Weather Service meteorologist said 13.13 inches of rain fell during Hurricane Milton.
Despite almost exclusively dry weather following the hurricane, statistics from the Southwest Florida Water Management District show this year’s rainfall is more than 10 inches above the normal average of 50 inches.
In addition, the Floridan aquifer, a layer of rock and sand that holds fresh water and supplies most of southwest Florida’s drinking water, is at 85% of historic levels. Last year, it was at 34%.
Meeting: There is a meeting of the Polk County Water Cooperative on Nov. 20 at 2 p.m. at the Lake Myrtle Sports Complex at 2701 Lake Myrtle Park Road in Auburndale.
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The BCI report also states that long-time residents recall swimming there in the 1950s. The assumption in allowing development there was that once the water levels went down, they would never return. It turns out that was mistaken. The BCI report also said flooding would recur. This is a horrible situation for the homeowners, but there is no real solution except retreat. This was just a poor place to allow homes in the first place and why taxpayers should be asked to fix poor county development decisions is really the issue.