APOPKA, Fla. – Major flooding after Hurricane Milton in parts of Apopka has led to months of conversation, and now a plan to get results.
Wednesday afternoon, the city commission gave their approval to a plan put together by Orange County to alleviate flooding around the Piedmont chain of lakes. In October, excessive rainfall led to water overflowing into a shopping center, townhome community, nearby neighborhood, and onto Piedmont Parkway, which connects the city to State Road 436.
“This is a like a swimming pool over on this side, and the water comes in from the lake,” said Jack Berrell as he described to our News 6 crew how the flooding has impacted his home near Lake Page.
“The same as it was for Ian, as it was for Irma,” said Berrell. “The water just came in both sides of the house, ran down the driveway, down to the retention pond. Fills up one retention pond and goes across the street and goes down and fills up the other retention pond.”
Our News 6 team first visited Berrell’s house with Orange County Commissioner Christine Moore in the fall. In the months that have followed, Moore has been working with city leaders in Apopka to find a solution and now they’ve finally signed off on a plan to pump excess water from Border Lake down towards Blue Lake and Lake Paige where there is a confirmed drainage well.
“After the storm, we couldn’t figure out how the water was making it to the Wekiva townhomes and the unnamed lake, and it was under the road,” said Moore.
Moore said they found out that Border Lake was the problem. Once they identified the main source, county staff started working on solutions. They are now working on the permits needed to start the pumping project, which should begin quickly once they are approved.
A utility design manager for the city of Apopka said there are flood events traced to the area as far back as the 60s. They will have to pump water through a chain of lakes to alleviate the issue.
“This is going to require four legs of pumping. Imagine it like a relay race,” said Da Huo. “So, the water is going to be pumping from Border Lake to Lake Jackson, and from Lake Jackson to Lake McDade, and from Lake McDade to Lake Piedmont, and from Lake Piedmont to Blue Lake. Once we get to Blue Lake it’s the end of the relay. It’s connected to Lake Page.”
Huo said if they can draw down the water levels enough it should help everyone affected by the flooding near State Road 436 and Piedmont Wekiva Road, including the Wekiva Village townhome community where a retention pond is already full, according to residents.
“What happened last year is all the small lakes become one giant puddle. We’re trying to prevent this one giant puddle from happening,” said Huo.
It’s a job that the city expects will take hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars to complete. They’ve allocated $100,000 to cover the costs, but it’s unclear exactly how much money it will take.
“It’s a moving target,” said Mayor Bryan Nelson. “It’s not as simple as we all would like to believe it is.”
Nelson shared that he went door-to-door Wednesday morning to speak with residents who will be near the noisy pumps while the work is being done in the coming weeks. He said they are doing their best to be considerate, while also fixing the flooding problem.
Ultimately, the goal is to bring relief to residents, while the city keeps working on a more permanent solution.
Moore told our News 6 crew Wednesday that the county is committed to finding a long-term fix as well.
“I have to say that the biggest concern was this rainy season and another potential wet hurricane, to have a temporary solution that could bring us a couple of years of relief as we work on a permanent solution,” Moore said.