{"id":57110,"date":"2025-08-07T19:22:23","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T23:22:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=57110"},"modified":"2025-08-07T19:22:30","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T23:22:30","slug":"lakeland-flood-report-released-nearly-a-year-after-hurricane-milton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/08\/07\/lakeland-flood-report-released-nearly-a-year-after-hurricane-milton\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakeland flood report released nearly a year after Hurricane Milton"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nearly a year after Hurricane Milton caused severe flooding around Lake Bonny, the City of Lakeland has released a long-awaited independent report detailing what went wrong and what the report recommends must be done to keep it from happening again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" data-dominant-color=\"93a2b0\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #93a2b0;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"230\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/bonny-1.webp?resize=1024%2C230&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-57111 not-transparent\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/bonny-1.webp?resize=1024%2C230&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/bonny-1.webp?resize=300%2C68&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/bonny-1.webp?resize=768%2C173&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/bonny-1.webp?resize=1536%2C346&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/bonny-1.webp?w=2000&amp;ssl=1 2000w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The storm submerged roads and flooded homes, displacing families and raising serious concerns about the city\u2019s preparedness.&nbsp;<br><br>The damage prompted residents to demand an outside investigation into the failures they believe made the flooding worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThey just didn\u2019t keep up with it,\u201d neighbor Ron Capps said. \u201cThey saw the lake was high last year, but nobody chose to do anything about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to the report, prepared by engineering firm AECOM, pump capacity was a key issue.&nbsp;<br><br>The lake\u2019s current system moves about 10 cubic feet of water per second, which is well below the 50 to 400 cubic feet per second that may be needed during major storm events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe knew we were right,\u201d said neighbor Dan Pultz, who called the findings both validating and frustrating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The report outlines three main options for addressing the issue:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Pumping water from Lake Bonny to nearby Lake Parker<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Redirecting it to a nearby mine<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Sending it downstream through Lake Parker<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe&#8217;re just anxious to get the problem fixed,\u201d resident Dorothy Drinkwater said. \u201cBecause we were out of our home for a good month last, during Milton.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">City officials say each solution comes with significant financial and logistical challenges. In a statement, a spokesperson said the options would require coordination between city, county, and state agencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For now, Polk County is leading the response. Officials have submitted a $12 million grant request to the Florida Department of Emergency Management to help fund flood mitigation projects around Lake Bonny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Still, residents remain skeptical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI hope they follow through with what they get out of this study,\u201d Capps said. \u201cInstead of just&#8230; putting it on a back burner like, \u2018Well, it\u2019s down now, no storms, nothing\u2019s happening, it\u2019ll just go away.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As hurricane season peaks, many living near Lake Bonny say the water levels are lower than they were last year, easing immediate concerns. But they warn that the window to act is closing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cDo something about it,\u201d Pultz said. \u201cWhat else can you do? We\u2019re powerless here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nearly a year after Hurricane Milton caused severe flooding around Lake Bonny, the City of Lakeland has released a long-awaited independent report detailing what went wrong and what the report&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57111,"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":"7591","_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","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMDhcL2Jvbm55LTEud2VicD9maXQ9MTAyNCUyQzIzMCZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6Ikxha2VsYW5kIGZsb29kIHJlcG9ydCByZWxlYXNlZCBuZWFybHkgYSB5ZWFyIGFmdGVyIEh1cnJpY2FuZSBNaWx0b24iLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImhpZ2h3YXkiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.PTihcX1mH078ZyZhFm2_ec8wLnRcjoEwXIDpTCTIKFgMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":57111,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/bonny-1.webp","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[7591],"tags":[11936],"class_list":["post-57110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-city-of-lakeland","tag-lakeland-flood-report-released-nearly-a-year-after-hurricane-milton"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57110","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57110"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57112,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57110\/revisions\/57112"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}