GROVELAND, Fla. – Weeks after Hurricane Milton hit Florida, many are still dealing with flooding, making everyday life difficult.
“This is the first time this has happened in the 15 years I have been here,” Edwin Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez lives in Timber Village, a manufactured home community in Groveland. He invited News 6 to see the ankle-deep flood water in front of his home since rising a few days after Hurricane Milton.
“This is crazy. This is a health hazard, and I have health problems. I had a triple bypass. I got a defibrillator on; I got all kinds of problems,” he said.
The water impacts him and several of his neighbors, who are all over 55. Rodriguez said he wanted the community administrators to offer resident assistance.
“I feel mad. The front office doesn’t want to do anything,” he said. “They said they were going to bring trucks to pull the water out and bring the electricians to fix the pumps and stuff, and then they never did nothing.”
News 6 stopped by Timber Village’s front office, but it is only open by appointment. We tried to reach them on the phone and left a voicemail.
We did reach the City of Groveland who got in touch with Rodriguez. They explained to him that because the overflow of water is from a river still at flood level, it cannot be pumped out. They also provided Rodriguez with resources from FEMA and Lake County.
News 6 meteorologist David Nazario explained that is hard to know how long it will take for the water to recede.
“There’s a bottleneck effect,” Nazario explained. “You have the atmosphere fighting on one side and the actual mass and the density of the water on the other side, and that’s why it’s just not going anywhere.”
As Rodriguez waits it out, he is hoping for some help.
“This can’t be like this. This is crazy,” he said.
News 6 did a Q&A with FEMA on disaster assistance in Florida post-Milton; click here for more information.
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