‘It’s pathetic’: Orlando residents outraged after flooding destroys their home

ORLANDO, Fla. — A family is picking up the pieces after their home was destroyed during the storm on Sunday.

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They live at the corner of Kaley Street and Osceola Avenue, near downtown Orlando.

The residents, who were outraged, blame the improvement project in Delaney Park for overwhelming the drainage system.

“I was just enjoying the weather, and then I saw all this water just coming into our home. I immediately just turned the power breakers off. I didn’t know what to do,” said Anne Harrison, who purchase her home just a month ago. “Hundreds of thousands of dollars. That’s how much this will cost us.”

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Video shared with Channel 9 shows the damage left behind after the storm.

Harrison explained that the stormwater took over the home within hours. “This is probably 100 grand worth of wood floors starting here. You know, we have to do all new drywall cabinetry. Every everything is just settling in,” said Harrison.

In the back of the home, the marks left behind show how high the water reached. “This isn’t a flood zone, and it wasn’t a flash flood because it was due to their [the City of Orlando] negligence, doing orange, doing Delaney, closing up our storm shutters or storm drains,” said Harrison.

Read: Heavy rain issues flood warnings across Central Florida

The residents say they reached out multiple times to the city and city officials for support since Sunday, but with no success.

“Everything went to voicemail, it’s pathetic,” said Steve Harrison, Anne’s husband. “I have asked for sandbags now as a preventative since my first point of contact. And I have got none. I had to fill it myself, buy it myself.”

The City of Orlando issues the following statement about the case :

City crews continue to assess areas throughout the city that experienced flooding after excessive rainfall from weekend storms; in some areas more than five to six inches fell within a matter of hours.

Crews were immediately mobilized over the weekend with vacuum trucks to help relieve any areas that had storm systems or inlets blocked.

The drainage systems generally work as designed, but no system could handle that volume of rain in that short period of time.

Once the rain subsided, the water receded fairly quickly. Again, many parts of the city experienced this flash flooding.

As a matter of prevention, Public Works crews regularly lower lake levels in anticipation of heavy rainfall, as well as taking erosion control measures.

Should residents experience a flash flood, they are encouraged to contact 911.

These rain events can occur in a matter of minutes. We remind residents:

• Stay informed as flash flooding can happen in a moment’s notice,
• Avoid driving through standing water,
• Residents who have debris in their yard should bundle and secure it, then place it on the side of their home to avoid clogging storm drains and prevent flooding.
• Never place yard debris on or near storm drains.

To report flooding, residents may also contact 407.246.2238 or fill out an online report. The City and the Florida Department of Transportation continue to monitor, remove or maintain drainage erosion filters and barriers that are required during infrastructure projects when heavy rains are expected.

Attached are examples of items that clogged the drains over this weekend – including branches, garbage bags, leaves, mulch and other debris.

As far as sandbags, both the city and the county provide them during storm events with advance warning, such as hurricanes, but again in this case, this was a flash flood with extreme rainfall.

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