Flooded Lake Bonny Residents Organize as Water Continues Rising
Residents of the Lakeland Livin' Mobile Home Park were under a voluntary evacuation order on Tuesday as the water in Lake Bonny continued to rise and angered residents whose homes are flooded are preparing to confront elected officials.
Evacuation: A Polk County sheriff's deputy drove a 5-ton military truck slowly through the park off Livingston Boulevard and a second deputy wearing waders went door-to-door, asking residents if they wanted to leave.
Lakeland Livin' resident Layton Hackney said people living in three of the park's 15 mobile homes have left. He added that residents have been asking the city for three months about the lake's drainage after a thunderstorm dumped about three inches of rain and brought the lake level up. The water has never receded, he said.
"I said, 'What if a hurricane comes?' And they said, 'If one comes, we'll worry about it then,'" Hackney said. "Well, one came and now look at us."
Hackney was using a jon boat Tuesday to ferry relief supplies to his neighbors.
Lake Bonny continued flooding: All along Lake Bonny, homes were flooded and water levels were not receding from Hurricane Milton's inundation of 12 to 16 inches of rain.
A newly created Facebook group called Lake Bonny Neighborhood shows that residents who are angered by the flooding are organizing. They are planning a community meeting for Sunday at 4 p.m. at the Lake Bonny Boat Ramp and also to raise questions at upcoming meetings of the Lakeland City Commission and Polk County Commission.
"I want to attest to the fact that this level of flooding has not happened in at least the past 64 years," Heather Slocum wrote in the Facebook group. "Generations of my family have lived in this neighborhood since the early 1960s. Clearly something has changed, and most certainly it's not an increase in the rainfall."
Blocked pump: Brittany Dickey posted that a city employee working on a pump Monday found a broken flower pot clogging it. City Communications Director Kevin Cook confirmed that Tuesday afternoon.
"We did maintenance on the pump yesterday. There was debris, including a flower pot at the intake, which was slowing the pump, but we cleared it," Cook said. "We are monitoring the pump through the day, so it was quickly resolved and only temporary. We monitor it constantly and stuff always gets in there, but we clear it. It's sucking water and whatever makes it through the intake."
Shallow lake: Lake Bonny is a 250-acre lake with an average depth of three feet, Cook said. It has only one outfall pipe at its north end, a canal that runs to Lake Parker. The two lakes are at the same elevation, and the pump is used when gravity stops working, he said.
"The city has been pushing water to Lake Parker when natural flow is not enough to relieve water level rise," Cook said. "This pump has been operating 24/7 since August 5th." "Unfortunately, Lake Parker water levels are also several feet higher than normal due to the multiple recent storms, and is over its banks as well, causing localized flooding."
A LkldNow reporter found the pump and confirmed that it is running and pushing water into a nearby canal, which is spilling over its banks.
Slideshow: 7 photosWater funnels to Lake Bonny: Cook said, maps show, and a visual sighting confirms that Lake Parker also discharges on its east side into Saddle Creek, which runs into Lake Hancock.
Saddle Creek and Lake Hancock are also flooded. The boat ramps of Lake Parker and Lake Hancock are both under water. The campground at Saddle Creek is closed.
"It remains very difficult to push water out of Lake Bonny and Lake Parker to alleviate flood conditions and lower the lake levels," Cook said over the weekend.
A map from the University of South Florida's Polk Water Atlas shows Lake Bonny is at the south end of flow for multiple lakes:
Lakeland water flow maps. Click on any image to enlarge:
Flood warning: Polk County remains under a flood warning, as Milton's rainfall continues to move through the Green Swamp and work its way south to the Hillsborough and Peace Rivers.
National Weather Service meteorologist Nicole Carlisle said the Withlacoochee River, which runs through the Green Swamp north of Lakeland, is three feet above major flooding levels, which is 16 1⁄2 feet, and still hasn't crested.
"It's very close to cresting; that's probably going to take days to fall," she said. "It's at 19.14 feet as of 5:30 p.m. (Tuesday). The crest is 19.2 feet, so basically it's right there." It will start to fall through the end of the weekend, she said.
Historic flooding: Central Florida has seen above-average rainfall in 2024 and Milton arrived at the end of summer when the ground was already saturated, according to the Southwest Florida Water Management District. Officials noted that the Little Withlacoochee River at U.S. 301 rose seven feet in three days — higher than Hurricane Irma totals in 2017, the triple hurricanes that crossed Central Florida in 2004, and the highest it has been since 1960.
"This is an ominous sign for the remainder of the Withlacoochee River, as all this floodwater must make its way downstream, causing water levels to rise to historic levels," the water district posted on Facebook.
Swamp developers: Former city worker Ron Tomlin, 75, called himself an old Florida Cracker and said his heart goes out to people whose homes are flooded.
"Florida was 70% swamp before we were overcome by developers and unscrupulous politicians," Tomlin wrote on Facebook. "There are many places in this state that should have never been developed. The Green Swamp is a beautiful example ... We see nature refilling wet areas all over ... Our elected officials are responsible for this mess."
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