{"id":51564,"date":"2024-11-04T17:01:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-04T22:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=51564"},"modified":"2024-11-04T17:01:07","modified_gmt":"2024-11-04T22:01:07","slug":"lake-bonny-resident-calls-for-investigation-into-flooding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2024\/11\/04\/lake-bonny-resident-calls-for-investigation-into-flooding\/","title":{"rendered":"Lake Bonny resident calls for investigation into flooding"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A Lake Bonny resident has made a clear request to Lakeland officials: Launch a formal investigation into what caused the severe flooding after hurricanes Helene and Milton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diana Hoagland, a Lake Bonny Drive East homeowner, appeared before the City Commission on Monday in a continuing push for information about the causes of the severe flooding that has forced hundreds of residents out of their homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Those who have a role to play in lowering water levels in Lake Bonny must remain laser-focused on that objective until it’s met,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Hoagland, who called herself an amateur hydrologist and community activist, said she’s seen the floodwaters surrounding her home are receding faster since a fourth pump was added on Oct. 30.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I’m hoping elevation data will prove that’s not just wishful thinking on my part,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hoagland’s observations are correct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lake Bonny was more than 2 feet over its normal operating level as of Monday morning, according to water elevation readings provided by the City of Lakeland. It was measured at 131.96 feet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s down about 1.68 feet from Bonny’s highest level after Milton of 133.64, measured from Oct. 12 to 15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starting Oct. 23, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers arrived and began operating its first pump, and the water levels in Bonny started to drop. Over the following week, with three pumps operating, the lake’s level decreased by about one-tenth of an inch daily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Last week, Lakeland staff took one of the U.S. Army Corps’ backup pumps and put it to use along with the others to send water into a canal from Lake Bonny into Lake Parker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, the lake’s levels have receded an average of 0.124 feet \u2014 or 1.5 inches \u2014 daily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With over 2 feet to go, it will take approximately another 18 days at this rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hoagland asked city commissioners to increase transparency by sharing the measured elevation of Lake Bonny with impacted residents daily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘We’re not out of the woods yet,” she said. “We’re still vulnerable to anything brewing in the tropics, whether it becomes Rafael or receives no name at all, rain with or without name is still rain.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hoagland asked city commissioners to ensure the lake is pumped down to a conservative level so that any significant rainfall doesn’t result in more flooding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Please pump like your life depends on it, as ours do,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hoagland asked Lakeland officials to launch an investigation into the causes of Bonny’s severe flooding in the aftermath of Helene and Milton. She called for an examination of the measures Lakeland staff has taken to manage water levels in Lake Bonny leading up to Milton and the re-examining of the current procedures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Only when the city, county, Swiftmud, and other groups can determine the root cause of this flooding can we move forward to develop strategies and actions to prevent it from happening again,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s not about assigning blame. It’s not about asking for scalps. It’s just about seeing the issue enough to determine the path forward,” Hoagland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commissioners Stephanie Madden and Sara Roberts McCarley thanked Hoagland for several detailed emails about the flooding at Lake Bonny, providing updated details and photos that have provided detail insight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city has scheduled an emergency commissioner meeting for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday to specifically discuss the flooding around Lake Bonny with residents. Mayor Bill Mutz said he has set a time limit of four minutes per speaker, out of fairness for all attending.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Lake Bonny resident has made a clear request to Lakeland officials: Launch a formal investigation into what caused the severe flooding after hurricanes Helene and Milton. Diana Hoagland, a… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51517,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":51517,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/milton.webp","type":"image\/webp"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[10234],"class_list":["post-51564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-lake-bonny-resident-calls-for-investigation-into-flooding"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51564"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51565,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51564\/revisions\/51565"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}