A neighborhood in Volusia County, Florida, is still experiencing significant flooding after Hurricane Milton landed in the state in early October. The neighborhood is working hard to try and get help from the city to fix the issue.
ORANGE CITY, Fla. – A Volusia County neighborhood is feeling the lasting impacts of Hurricane Milton more than six weeks after the storm first made landfall in Florida.
The residents living on Miller Road and Shady Lane in Orange City are still experiencing significant flooding following the hurricane, and they have no idea when the waters will finally recede.
“The two roads that border up against Miller Pond, we’re all being affected,” said David Musser, a resident whose home on Miller Road is still affected by the flooding.
Musser said when he first bought his home in 2012, it never flooded.
He said after flooding in 2004, the state decided to raise the road and create a retention pond to help mitigate future flood issues.
“For years, it was completely dry. We used to ride our horses on the other side, in the retention area. I would cut trails, and kids rode their four-wheelers over there,” he said.
A helicopter lands in the once-empty retention pond near David Musser’s home in 2014.
(David Musser / FOX Weather)
Ever since Hurricane Ian hit in 2022, the pond has held water. Since then, it’s only gotten worse.
Musser said they got 14 inches of water during Hurricane Milton, and the retention pond would’ve held the water, but in 2017, a permit was signed that added more water to the pond.
“Orange City, Volusia County and the St. Johns River Authority agreed to a permit to let water be shifted from Orange City businesses into Miller Pond. So we got our 14 inches (of water), and we got everybody else’s 14 inches,” Musser said.
He said after Hurricane Helene, the water began to rise, and after Hurricane Milton, it took three weeks to stop rising.
Musser said he stayed in his home when Milton hit, while his wife took their horses and evacuated.
‘There’s still water all around. I have no use in my driveway, if it wasn’t for the kindness of my neighbors,” he said.
Musser said his neighbors let them use part of their driveway to park their cars, so they can get in and out.
He said the city leaves the gate valve open, allowing floodwaters from other parts of town to enter the retention pond. “They just kept sending water over here,” Musser said.
Some residents in Musser’s neighborhood have been displaced from their homes after the storm because their septic tanks were ruined.
The neighborhood has been banding together in attempt to get the city to help with the flooding. “They’ll not come up with a plan. Right now, their plan is to let it go away naturally, and it never will,” Musser said.