Wadeview, Delaney Park residents blame city project for flooding

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — As parts of Central Florida continued to experience flooding Monday, an Orlando neighborhood is still picking up the pieces after last week’s flooding.

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We told you how residents near downtown Orlando saw inches of flood water September 1st.

In front of the Mayor and City Council, many residents from the Delaney Park and Wadeview Park communities voiced their frustrations about that water taking over their community.

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They say the flooding wasn’t all mother nature. They claim it was caused in part by the Delaney Avenue Improvement Project. Residents say it was only since this project started that they began seeing this dramatic type of flooding. Rainwater is unable to drain properly.

However, the City says the stormwater system was overwhelmed by the amount of rainfall the area received in a short time frame.

“You have failed. You have turned your back on your community,” Steve Harrison said to council. Harrison was one of many who spoke to local leaders Monday. He and his family saw the worst of the flooding in the neighborhood.

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The family moved into their home on Kaley Street about a month ago. Now, they’re ripping out the drywall after they say over two feet of flood water engulfed their new house. The flooding caused thousands of dollars worth of damage.

“It’s still an absolute disaster. Junk being thrown out every day. Devastating quite honestly,” Steve Harrison said.

Residents say the storm water system was already strained before the Delaney Avenue Project, but it was never this bad.

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“We have neighbors that have lived there 20, 30, 65 years. They have approached me and said they have never witnessed flooding like what we saw last weekend,” another resident said.

Corey Knight, the City’s Public Works Director, responded Monday, saying it was not the Delaney Avenue project. Rather, he said the system was overtaxed by the amount of rainfall the area received in a short time frame. He said the area got as much as four inches in an hour.

Knight said the system is designed to withstand a faction of that—about .85 inches an hour.

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“This event was so intense, that project or not, you would have seen some of this level of what it did,” Knight said.

After hearing what residents and the Public Works Department had to say, Mayor Buddy Dyer asked for the city to accelerate any action that could provide immediate temporary relief to the area.

Dyer said if this same exact storm hit in two weeks from now, he wants the city to have a way to mitigate the same amount of rainfall the area received Sept. 1.

Knight says his team already have staff looking at what they can do.

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