Amber Barrick and Nikki Orem, residents of this beleaguered subdivision, illustrated their neighborhood's plight in an Op/Ed submitted to The Apopka Voice:
"Is this Apopka or a third-world country? Local government has failed its people, and there is no “short-term” solution, per Mayor Nelson and his “team of experts,” to the endless water surrounding Wekiva Village (WV) homes, which is putting them in jeopardy.
After Hurricane Milton, WV residents felt their prayers had been answered: yard clean-up was underway, electricity was still on, and no trees went down. As the day progressed into night, neighbors noticed the power boxes, which also run the WV lift station, were now beginning to be submerged in copious amounts of water.
Fast forward to Friday morning, and panic sets in. Residents wake up to find their yards - and connecting retention pond - which has never overflowed before, was overflowing at an unprecedented rate: an inch per hour!
Residents soon realized the source of the rising water was not from Hurricane Milton - an endless and fast flow of water was being transferred into their pond. It was not until residents called several local officials that this fast flow was decreased; however, it was too late and still, somehow, flowing. Many WV residents are displaced as they cannot live in their homes or work remotely as some do, and their power was shut off indefinitely.
Mayor Nelson says he has been to WV several times. Still, at last night’s City Council meeting, a large majority of his Commissioners were just learning of this major issue when WV residents showed up and were not an agenda item to be discussed. WV residents spoke and questioned the mayor for over an hour at this meeting and left with little hope but the promise of sandbags and an update “by lunchtime tomorrow.”
It appears the Mayor and other officials knew the pond in WV was in jeopardy; however, residents - not deemed to be in a flood zone - were not warned. Keeping 436 and other local businesses open was more of a priority than tax-paying families.
Yesterday, Orange County officials connected with multiple WV residents, and this is what we know:
Border Lake (between Lumen and Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market) is in Apopka’s city jurisdiction and backflowed to Lake Ruden (next to Chick-fil-A).
Lake Ruden overcame the street system, leading to the city of Apopka putting water into county-owned ponds.
Lakes Border and Ruden flowed into the street system, came into the retention pond behind WV (Oasis Apartments), and blew a berm out in our retention pond Friday (hence the inch-per-hour increase in water levels), and no one could stop it at that point.
Lake Ruden’s flow of water to WV has slowed, but now Lake Piedmont, across the street from WV, is flowing backward, and no one knows what to do with the water.
Orange County has met, and its deputy director is involved. They came up with an emergency plan to present to the city. As of last night, this was not shared with Commissioners until the Mayor was pressed; allegedly, the plan was only to create a new berm.
Water continues to come in from lakes the City of Apopka manages, but they claim they can't do anything on these lakes. They claim it is “rising naturally” through no fault of their own; this begs the question, how much is water expected to rise “naturally” in 24 hours?
The WV residents need answers. They left the City Council Meeting defeated, with no timelines or solutions. Residents reminded the City Council that if this were in their backyard, they would do something about it. Not only are hard-working adults displaced because of this, children have been forced out of their homes.
Today, water trucks have been present and Mayor Nelson briefly appeared. A “L” shaped berm is created to act as a dam to decrease water flow toward homes. Local officials are supposedly adopting a long-term plan to mitigate this issue as sandbags are also placed…a week later."
Nelson also responded to Wekiva Village residents with an update and an open letter to the community:
"Dear Residents of Wekiva Village Lane
I sincerely appreciate your input during the City Council Meeting last night. The City is continuing to do everything we can to reduce or eliminate the flooding issue in your neighborhood.
We have pulled the rainfall data collected at Fire Station #3. The data shows that a total of 12.78-inches of rainfall fell on Wednesday and Thursday last week at this location. Please note that the FEMA 100-year/24-hour rainfall depth is 11.8”, so Milton exceeded the FEMA depth by nearly 1-inch.
Today, we are working on the following:
- City has deployed a Vac-Truck this morning to extract water from the Unnamed Lake/Marsh west of your subdivision cul-de-sac.
- Today, the City Emergency Operation Center (EOC) will initiate a request of Mutual Aide through the Orange County EOC, who will then contact the State of Florida EOC with a request for their consideration to deploy a Tiger Dam system around the western end of your neighborhood.
- City Staff are working now to install sandbags along the southern rim of the Orange County stormwater pond to slow or potentially stop the overflow of the Orange County pond into the Unnamed Lake/Marsh west of your subdivision.
- City Staff are working now to continue to install sandbags along Orange County Maintained Piedmont-Wekiwa Road, to restrict or prevent flow from Lake Piedmont into the Orange County roadway drainage system."
Orange County Commissioner Christine Moore sympathized with Wekiva Village residents.
"My heart goes out to the Wekiva homeowners who cannot reenter their homes until flooding recedes and power is restored," she said. "I have visited their community daily and spoken purposefully with county pond staff."
Moore also offered a temporary solution to the flooding called a Tiger Dam.
"I’m glad our staff came up with the idea of a “Tiger Dam”. I’m praying the city quickly files the necessary application and the state contractor quickly constructs the dam. I do wish we all had figured out this solution days ago, but I’m relieved there is a short-term solution."
According to usfloodcontrol.com, a Tiger Dam is a simple, rapid deployment system designed as a temporary emergency stopgap against flooding. A Tiger Dam consists of elongated flexible tubes that may be quickly stacked, joined end to end, and filled with water. The pyramid-shaped structure forms a barrier to protect buildings, properties, or any other structures before the onset
of a flood.
