Flood control in The Villages
 

I have always heard and read about how The Villages has a great flood control system where, in the event of a hurricane, they can flood the golf courses and save the houses.

Does anyone know the specifics on this? How much rain can they handle before they are overwhelmed? Would they have been able to handle the 18-24 inches that were forecast? Or would many homes have been flooded?

The communications we received from them said they were prepared for a 100 year flood event. Not sure how that comes out in inches, but I think we are better off than most in any event.

Just a few posts down. Check out the video posted by twoplanekid.
https://www.talkofthevillages.com/fo...system-335597/

I strongly doubt the water management could or would control 18-24 in of rain.
There was a post a while back maybe in Deluna where pumps have been running since July.
The narrative of 100 year weather events are now creating a narrative of 500 year events, there are some serious issues to consider with climate events..

I just skimmed the video and will watch in full later. Looks very interesting and informative!

He stated that they are designed for 10 inches in 24 hours but during Irma, they got 12-15 inches in 18 hours and they still worked. They outperformed their design.

The video is a bit over 40 minutes long but the presentation is absolutely FABULOUS!!!!! I recommend it. The storm water management is nothing short of miraculous in this community. The infrastructure is well worth what we pay in bond.

Yes, it is very encouraging to know The Villages can handle so much storm water very efficiently.

Their "Water Management" system, didn't do much good during Irma.
Ask anyone on the historic side.
You couldn't cross the golf cart bridge for a week and the power was about that long.

That was in prep for a repair. Had nothing to do with too much water.

Point to someone whose house flooded, that would be a reason to doubt the system. Flooded tunnels and approaches *could* have been due to lack of power to run lift pumps (you write that both resolved at about the same time). And obviously, keeping the power on is not a function of a water management system.

The water management system is not on the historic side. The infrastructure and homes were built in the 60s. Probably above ground wired.

Really? Always a troll in these threads. I guess you would bring up the 1906 Earthquake and troll the lack of preparedness if you lived in San Francisco.

A 100 year storm is a civil engineering thing. Basically means there’s a 1% that a storm (1/100) that size will happen. It is possible for a 100 year storm to happen two years in a row - but the chances are low.
The goal of water management is to keep the water out of the houses, it needs to go someplace, it will go to the golf courses, the tunnels, etc.

My understanding is that very few homes had water intrusion with Irma.

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Sounds correct. Golf courses and tunnels had lots of water.

The big thing we need to be concerned about are the tornadoes. We had one on Groundhog Day that did a lot of damage in 2007.

As stated, The Villages basin design (storage) can receive 10" in 24 hours; the inlets can remove 7" in 24 hours. So that event was within the design limits of the system.

Ian produced greater than 17" in 24 hr in some areas so we may have seen water in the streets if that materialized here.

This was a 1/1,000 year event for those areas.

This also means there is a 1/10 chance over 10 years, or a 1/3 chance over the life of a 30 yr mortgage.

You obviously did not watch the video. There was no code or standards when the historic section was built. Nobody really knows what the system on the other side of 441 was designed to handle. That being said, if your home did not flood the system worked.

During Irma the water level behind our house was high. We got 16”
and it was scary how high it rose.
During Ian they had begun lowering the water level and we didn’t get
as much rain.

We were very lucky in The Villages.

I watched a video of a presentation about the storm water management system. There were improvements made to the storm management system south of 466. The system south of 466 out performed what was expected of it.

There is infrastructure on the Historic side for water management but it is not as good as what was engineered south of 466.

The storm water management system is designed to put the excess water in the golf courses and the streets and tunnels. The goal is to keep the water out of the homes. Irma was a great test to the system (south of 466) and it out performed what was designed. The engineers were delighted with the results.

Not sure about the rest of the Villages, but my neighbor's rain gage only showed about 3.5 inches from Ian down in Fenney, so not sure if that was really a test of the system. I know early on Ian was predicted to move right over us, but it went south/east.

That said, I've read great things about the flood management system here, and based on comments from longer term residents, it seems to work fairly well.

Yup. They got smarter as they started to build further south.

It sounds like are on a retention pond.

If so, how far is the water from your house regularly and how close did the water get to your house during Irma? Do you think another inch would have flooded your house?

If you are not on a pond, how much water was in your backyard and how close did the water get to your house?

Just to clarify, hurricanes and tornadoes are weather events, NOT climate events. Big difference.

Understood and I agree we have probably the best storm water Management system in the world. But at some point with enough rain the system can be overwhelmed.

Based on the information provided, the rain that occurred east of us, now causing record flooding in the St Johns river basin, may have been enough for that to happen in some areas of The Villages.

IRMA rain
 

I saw a article that said there was alot of rain 30 days before IRMA saturating the ground then it got the 10-15 inches

We had a lot of rain this summer. The lakes were there highest I've seen in there years before this event also. They dropped the levels abut a foot the data before Ira.

True, but they made massive improvements over the past 30+ years...

Appears that you received a lot of "professional" answers on your question. Just wondering how many from engineers that knew or knows the original design parameters and design for various areas of Villages. Same for up grades. My bet not one. Opinions aren't facts and just because you read it on the internet doesn't make it correct. Verify your sources.

It didn’t work on the historical side because it did not exist when they built that area. It did work the proof is no flooding where it was in place everywhere outside of the historical side.

Appears you didn't watch the "professionals" giving information in the linked video...

Facts aren't trolling.......

Rain capacity of system
 

According to a person working at Belle Glade, when Irma came through she dropped 18 inches of rain in that area. The system worked and there was no flooding in the residential areas. The golf courses were flooded. The sprinkler system on the golf course was turned on to reduce the levels of water in the ponds/lakes and ran continuously for 26 hours. I had a house in LaBelle South at the time and there was no flood or wind damage to any of the houses in our neighborhood that I am aware of.

There was some good drone footage of Evans Prairie where the cart path seemed to go into the water and come out the other side about 100 yards away. Much better than seeing that running through our streets and houses.

As is all too familiar, there were those who found a reason to complain and wanted a refund of some of their amenity fee because the could not play some or all of a certain golf courses for two or three weeks. Meanwhile, in Puerto Rico, people had no power for months.

You are correct with the addition that a 100 year storm means that there is a 1% chance of it happening "in a given year". It should be noted that Ian was a 1000 year storm meaning there was a 1/10 of a percent chance of it happening in a given year. It's an also be noted that so far in the United States there has been five 1000 year storms. So much for statistics.

The presenter in this video is a professional who helped design and manage our water systems in the Villages. I know because I am on the NSCUDD board that works with this very knowledgeable consultant, Mr. Arnett.

You are always invited to attend one of our board meetings to ask questions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VWL2iYzY-o


Rick Rademacher
NSCUDD Board member
Board of Supervisors

The historic section did have flooding issues during Irma

That is what was said in the presentation. The man who gave the presentation said The Villages had unprecedented conditions with the 30" of rain the previous two months before Irma hit. Our storm water management system handled the rainfall from Irma better than the engineers expected.

My comments are taken from the presentation that was given after Irma. Have you watched the video that was posted bytwoplanekid? I believe the guy giving the presentation is a storm water management professional.

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