DELTONA, Fla. — While dozens of Deltona residents are still recovering from the impacts of Hurricane Ian a year ago, heavy rains this past week brought flooding back to many of their properties.

Every time it rains, Mike Morris says he gets anxious thinking about his home flooding. After Hurricane Ian, water came in all the way to his backyard, and he says he’s not alone.

Walking into his backyard, he recounted what it was like when Hurricane Ian hit the area more than a year ago.

“What we’re worried about this year is that I had water to this point, with a trench going around completely up to our pool,” Morris said.

With the heavy rain over the last few days, he said he and his wife, Stephanie, are concerned about the water coming back to the property. 

“I’ve been here 13 years now and the water’s just getting higher and higher,” Morris said.

He said the city created a flooding control structure to alleviate the Lake Theresa basin — which is supposed to drain the water — but so far it hasn't helped.

“We got three inches rainstorm one night, which brought this water," he said. "Actually, last weekend there was no water here. There was nothing. And then actually here we got what we call the cut that goes out. And now all that, you see how far it comes up, it goes up and wraps around the house again."

Morris’s next-door neighbor’s backyard was also flooded — something he attributes, at least in part, to development within the city.

“If everything’s full, then why you keep building if you know the basin can’t handle it?" Morris asked. "Why do you keep putting up and flowing more into this? It’s ridiculous."

Morris said a group of his neighbors are also in the same situation.

“Every single one of the neighbors that back this greenway are all concerned,” he said, referring to the greenway once known as Lake Clara that bordered Nadine Drive.

Morris showed Spectrum News the backyard of his neighbor on Nadine Drive, where the water has flooded in.   

“All this was dry — I mean, you can see where the pines used to be out there," Morris said. "Pines don’t grow in wetland, and there’s probably another 15 to 20 houses with backyards like this."

Deltona City Commissioner for District 4 Dana McCool said she went out Sunday in the community alongside Volusia County commissioner David Santiago to assess flooding problems in different areas of the city.

“Our best course of action right now is to keep our residents informed of what we’re doing, to listen to what our residents are saying," McCool said. "I have my two pages of areas of concern, along with the pages from social media. Please know that I’m working on that and i intend to answer every single picture about what we’re doing in that area right now."

Last year, the city of Deltona allocated $6.5 million to stormwater projects, but this year residents voted down a proposal to increase the stormwater assessment fee.

“We already have a consultant engineering firm in here talking about this," McCool said. "We’ve been talking about it for a year now, and we’re capturing the funds, hopefully from the federal government, hopefully some state funds."

Morris said if the problem does not get fixed, he sees only one way out.

“Sell," he said. "Sell and hope — hopefully, someone buys the house. I mean, because right now, anything around here is in a flood zone."

McCool said she planned to meet with the city manager and the stormwater staff Monday to share residents’ concerns and look for solutions.