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Volusia County neighborhood flooded weeks after Hurricane Milton: 'We’re sitting ducks for the next hurricane'

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Published  November 14, 2024 12:50am EST
Hurricane Milton
FOX 35 Orlando

Weeks after Hurricane Milton, floodwaters community

Five weeks to the day since Hurricane Milton tore across central Florida, one area in Volusia County is still underwater.

ORANGE CITY, Fla. - Five weeks to the day since Hurricane Milton tore across central Florida, one area in Volusia County is still underwater.

In order to access their street, residents of Miller Road have to utilize a single-lane makeshift route comprised of asphalt milling. Floodwater in the area is about 4–5 feet deep and rising. Some homeowners’ septic tanks and water wells have been compromised, and with the threat of another incoming storm, they are petrified things will get worse.

David Musser, who has lived on Miller Road for close to 20 years, is cut off from his property. To get to and from his home, he has to walk through his next-door neighbors’ front yard.

"Thank god for our neighbors that are letting us walk through their property," said Musser. "We’ve got to park all our vehicles in front of their house, and I built this gate, I put this gate in."

Floodwater is just feet from Musser’s home. He has a small pump placed in what used to be his driveway, an effort to divert water from his septic tank, which he said is in jeopardy of failing. 

"Milton was a catastrophic storm, and we got 14 inches of rain," said Musser. "We got our 14 inches of rain, which wouldn’t have done this, but we got everybody else’s 14 inches of rain too, because they’re sending it over here."

Musser and many of his neighbors blamed a storm-water drainage pipe for the flooding.

"The water coming through this pipe feeds directly into Miller Lake," said Tony Frank. "Miller Lake is a privately owned lake."

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Frank has owned property in the area for 20+ years. He said he had never seen flooding like this. 

"They’re trying to tell us it’s natural drainage, natural flow," Frank said. "We’re in a low spot, I get that, we’re not arguing that… but here’s the problem… natural flow is nature’s way. When man gets involved and puts pipes, drains, and valves and guides it to a point – that ain’t natural anymore, okay, people!?"

Installed in 2017, David Hill said the drainage pipe was supposed to divert water from the commercial property across Treemont Drive.

"But as it turns out, the system is below the water level of the lake that it’s adjacent to," Hill said. "So, this system is taking all the groundwater from that lake and over 100 acres of commercial property, and it's pushing it through the storm drain and its ending up in Miller Lake."

Neighbors said they have contacted city, county and state agencies for help, but their fears are met with no solutions – one of which, they said, is simple: seal the drainage pipe.

"We’re sitting ducks for the next hurricane," Hill said. "The next hurricane is going to jack this lake up another 5 feet and more homes will be lost."

According to Hill, the St. Johns Water Management permit, which allows for water to be diverted into Miller Lake, can be modified, but it is up to county officials to make that change.

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