Alhambra Pond Add to Enrique and Botello off of El Camino
 

I've noticed that the pond at Alhambra was practically empty up until Milton struck us.
Anybody know if it has developed another $100,000 a leak?

My realtor who lives in Middleton measured 13” of rain at her house. South of 44 got significantly more rain than northern Villages. Very few water hazard issues were encountered down here.

Yes, this has happened on a couple of streets here in DeLuna that are still flooded 3 days post Milton. The streets are next to the postal station, which has a huge marsh/preserve behind it that is fuller than we’ve ever seen it. The water level is 1-2 ft from the top of the 8 ft wall surrounding it. It looks like a lake now. Every heavy rainstorm or hurricane/TS event these streets are badly flooded. We personally live a couple blocks from the postal station, but on the opposite side of Marsh Bend Trail (our main through road), and no streets have flooded by us. They have some major drainage problems that aren’t being addressed that are very frustrating for those residents.

I understand frustrating, but how would you propose they address those drainage "problems?"

It may not be legal to pump water out of a preserve area but if it was, where would they put the water? Pumping it into the streets won't help since it will flow right back in. All the other ponds are at capacity so the water can't be moved there. The golf courses are either saturated or are being used to lower the water-reclamation ponds to increase capacity for the sewer system. Where should the water go?

Water
 

. The area near the intersection of Whittington Circle and Mabel Terrace in DeLuna flooded in a few miles radius due to poor drainage of street drains, despite being reported many times by numerous residents. The nearby retention pond has a liner which causes water levels to stagnate. The next district 13 meeting will be heavily attended by us residents .

The Villages drainage system was designed to handle a 100 Year Storm event. That's what we had and the system works fabulously.


A lot of folks get frustrated with the weather, but it's hard to change.

Perhaps you folks didn't notice, that the recent hurricane produced a 100 year storm event, which in Sumter County, means about 14" of rain. The Villages drainage system is designed to handle a 100 year storm event and it did. It is at design capacity.

As for a "retention pond" having a "liner" ... do you know for a fact it's a "retention pond" or is a "detention pond"? If it is a "retention pond" as you wrote, it is designed to HOLD water and not allow the water to percolate into the ground. That means it's likely to NEED a "liner" to do what it's intended to do. You and every other resident in the entire state of Florida could show up at the District Meeting and you'll just be wasting you time. That's what the design criteria was and the District doesn't have control over it ... the State of Florida approved the design.

Folks should learn their facts, before posting about technical issue they are not familiar with.

https://clcinc.co/detention-pond-vs-...right-for-you/

I suspect several of you would have a different perspective if you lived in Deluna on the streets described earlier. Especially when it’s recommended to shelter in place, told by the district they are monitoring with pre-staged trucks to pump when the water comes up to your lanai and only a several feet from where you sleep. This was reported to the district several weeks prior to the storm by many individual residents. This was preventable.

How? How could this have been prevented?

How deep is the water in the streets? Is it 4", 12", ___?? If the water is not yet up to your lanai then some might call that a success.

Even though it is "their job", if was in the area where my home is, I'd clean it out to protect my property.

We're in DeLuna and it was halfway up my driveway and covered half my front yard. The pond overflowed in the back by many feet and was less than 12" off my foundation. We stayed up all night concerned it would be in our house. We will probably get flood insurance now, even though we aren't in a flood area, because that was way too close. Our neighbor's lanai was completely surrounded and the area between our houses was flooded with the pond. I was basically on an island for two days and if we didn't have an SUV I wouldn't have been able to get out.

Weeks before Helene hit they could have moved the water from the so called trucks they said they had to either of the 2 ponds around the corner that never have water that our pond is not connected to. How about that for a solution?

Would that have been legal? If your pond is truly a natural pond and not a man-made retention pond with a liner then it might enjoy a certain level of protection against interference. It *might* not be legal to pump water out of it except to prevent homes from flooding.

Weeks before Helene hit there might not have been any indication that Helene would actually hit and certainly no indication that there would be a Milton, that it would grow as it did, and that it would dump this much water on our area.

I suppose asking how it could be prevented was a bad question. A better question would be what signs that there was something to prevent were ignored and what reasonable and legal actions were indicated but not taken? Monday morning quarterbacking is pretty simple, Saturday predictions and Sunday real-time coaching are much more difficult.

Record 20- 25 inches in 24 hrs Florida
 

The record for Florida is 20-25 inches of rain in a day 4 hrs south down in Ft Lauderdale last year.

Hindsight is 20/20 but it's risky to purchase a home next to a body of water not connected to the storm water management system.

There is very little outflow in the area so no place for the water to drain.

I don't know all the details, but no one has mentioned this area. I believe that the Daily Sun ran an article about this ( which I have not read). So, with those disclaimers upfront, here goes. Hurricane Helene raised the level of Paradise Lake in the Historic section enough to overflow and block the street on the lakes'northern perimeter. Several residents complained. The Villages Storm Management people pumped out the water and lowered the level of Paradise Lake, which was fortunate because there was no flooding during Hurricane Milton. I apologize for the vague details, but I just wanted something about this flooding event to be part of this thread.