‘The biggest investment in our lives is now worth nothing’

HOLLY HILL — When Hurricane Milton hit, 73-year-old Robert Arnold found himself pulling his wife to safety, telling her they had just lost everything they owned to the floodwaters pouring into their home.

Allison Fowler’s 8-year-old daughter lost all her toys to the brutal floodwaters, and her bicycle was covered in sewage spewing from overwhelmed wastewater pipes. The child is now afraid to go to sleep and nervously looks at the floor from her bed.

Christian George said she lost everything to the 2-foot flood that poured into her home two weeks ago, including custody of her 9-year-old daughter to her ex because she now has no place to live.

“I’m self-employed and a single mother. I don’t know what to do,” George said.

Arnold, Fowler and George were among 27 people who went to City Hall Tuesday night to explain to city commissioners what they’ve been through since the hurricane tore through their city on Oct. 9 and 10, and to plead for help.

‘It’s not fair to live like this’

Tuesday evening was much more about listening to residents than brainstorming about solutions. For almost two hours, residents one after another stepped up to the microphone to explain what they experienced with the repeated flooding in their homes.

Kyle Stickney told city commissioners that the sewer system on his street, Graham Avenue, is “inadequate” and “deteriorating.” He accused city officials of knowing about it for years “and essentially ignoring it.”

“The sewage system was built 70 years ago with a certain capacity in mind, and has long since exceeded its limit,” he says. “The incompetence in this city in the 40 years I’ve been here is a shame to see.”

Danielle Latona said when Holly Hill homes flooded in 2009, residents were told it was a 100-year storm and they would never see anything like it again. She said this was why so many people didn’t move back then.

The hurricanes that have come since have been nightmares, she said, describing how her then 80-year-old mother had to be carried screaming from her home as the waters rose during a previous hurricane.

When Milton visited, she said some people couldn’t leave their homes or get to their cars for four days.

“How many of you have been flooded or had sewage in your home?” Latona asked the city officials sitting around the podium. “How many of you have asked us if we need food or water?”

She said many people’s homes are now badly damaged or destroyed.

“The biggest investment of our lives is now worth nothing,” she said.

Several residents have indicated they plan to move. One man choked up as he said he doesn’t want to leave, but he has to “for the safety of my family.”

Those who remain, including some who think they will never find a buyer, begged the city for help.

City officials want to find a solution

The mayor, commissioners and city staff couldn’t say they have the solution to all the problems with the city’s flooding and sewer system. But they said it’s a challenge they’ve been facing for years, and they vowed to keep doing everything they can.

“I heard you,” City Commissioner Penny Currie told residents who filled the wood-floored committee rooms. “I pledge to work diligently on this issue during my last two years as president. I am here to find solutions.”

“I don’t care anymore,” Mayor Chris Via said.

But Via explained that the city “doesn’t have a magic wand to wave.”

“I can’t tell you that this will be fixed by the next hurricane season,” the mayor said. “The solution will be difficult and long. It’s a big problem.”

A work in progress

City Manager Joe Forte said he and city staff know what the problems are, and they are working to resolve them. The problems are complex and won’t be the same as fixing a broken pipe, he said.

“This is a system-wide problem that needs a system-wide solution,” Forte said.

For now, city employees are doing everything they can to help, he said. In an Oct. 12 email to a resident, Forte explained what his public works employees were going through.

“With all the work these men have put in to prepare for the storm, during the storm and after the storm, they are exhausted, overworked and overwhelmed, while also dealing with the effects of the storm on their own properties and have no have time to solve their own problems because they have to go to work,” Forte wrote in the email.

Each year the city allocates money for stormwater and sewer projects, Via said.

“I want people to know that we’ve been looking at this for years,” he said.

Via said he has no regrets about not pushing for tax increases to fund projects. Instead, the city has been chasing dollars and grants from the state government, he said.

Read more: Two weeks after Milton, some Holly Hill residents are still unable to use their toilets and showers.

Via said he will talk to state lawmakers and members of Congress about the city’s flooding and sewer problems.

Next week, the commissioners will meet for a workshop meeting to discuss storm water.

Tracy Anderson said she has lived in her home for 35 years, but the flooding didn’t start until 2009. The flooding has become so bad for the retiree that she watches the weather every morning to decide whether to move things higher up in her house when it looks like rain.

“It’s not fair to live like this,” Anderson said. ‘Please help us. This is our life. You’re basically making a fool of our lives.”

You can reach Eileen at [email protected]

This article originally appeared in The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Holly Hill struggles with very serious flooding problems