PORT ORANGE, Fla. — Halloween marked three weeks since Hurricane Milton made landfall in Central Florida.

Some residents in the city of Port Orange are cleaning up the mess leftover by a storm for a second time now.

One resident on Spruce Creek Road blames the flooding on the city’s lack of preparation.

Ryann Stevens is calling for an immediate temporary solution to the flooding problem in her neighborhood that goes beyond sandbags brought out by the city.

Like many Volusia County residents, her home flooded for a second time in two years, and she said she thinks more could’ve been done ahead of the storm.

What You Need To Know

  • Port Orange residents are raising awareness about flooding problems after Hurricane Milton flooded multiple homes, some for a second time

  • Residents demand that city officials come up with a “temporary fix” to address flooding concerns while it works on longer-term permanent solutions

  • Port Orange Mayor Donald Burnette admits the city’s infrastructure isn’t adapted to deal with the kind of storm surge brought by hurricanes Ian and Milton

  • The city also outlined permanent solutions to assist with flooding, including a higher berm and more efficient pump stations

“How many?” is what Stevens’ 6-year-old son was asking his mom when he saw the floodwaters from Milton coming into his home in the middle of the night.

“We didn’t know when the water was going to stop coming in? We weren’t sure what to tell him, so that’s kind of what he was saying was ‘how many more minutes’ until it stops coming in,” Stevens explained.

She has had to scrap all the floors in her home and dispose of a good chunk of her furniture for a second time. Not to mention, Stevens had to get rid of her four vehicles that were damaged by the storm.

Frustrated to be doing this for a second time, Stevens said she’s raising awareness on the issue for an immediate temporary solution to this ongoing problem.

“They basically told us they’re planning to fix it but it’s not actually going to be fixed for 10 years, so all we’re asking is a temporary fix. Let’s just get something that will protect us for now,” Stevens said about her feedback from city officials at the last city council meeting.

Ryann Stevens' home flooded during Hurricane Milton. (Courtesy of Ryann Stevens)

Port Orange Mayor Donald Burnette acknowledged that the sandbags lined up along the Cambridge Levee, right off Trailwood Drive, were just a temporary fix to a larger problem.

The city’s berm is used to protect neighboring homes and infrastructures from storm surge from the Spruce Creek River, which sits right behind it.

Not to mention, the water from Spruce Creek comes off the Halifax Canal, which makes its way eastward into the Halifax River and into the Atlantic Ocean.

A system of canals also flows through several parts of Stevens’ neighborhood, which is where she said the water that seeped into her home likely came from.

“The way that the canals flow together, when they all rise, it overflows,” she said.

Burnette said a permanent solution is on its way but says that it will unfortunately take time before residents will see those effects.

“At this point, it’s like we can’t rely on the wall anymore or the sandbags, so it’s like every storm that we get we’re expecting that we’re going to flood, and that shouldn’t be how it is,” she said.  

The city of Port Orange’s public information officer, Michael Springer, said that, for now, the Cambridge pump station and its berm are working and were functioning during Hurricane Milton, even though water flowed over the top of the berm.

Springer said, “Low-lying areas near bodies of water and built before modern stormwater regulations went into place in the 1990s, like the Cambridge neighborhood, can be particularly vulnerable to flooding, especially during significant rainfalls like those experienced during Ian and Milton.”

Burnette said the city’s infrastructure isn’t able to deal with the kind of storm surge they experienced during hurricanes Ian and Milton.

Burnette said that he thought Hurricane Ian was a “one-off” but since then, he said the city has put forward various projects to address the flooding concerns that will probably become a “new trend” as he calls it.

Springer outlined some of the city’s permanent solutions to addressing flooding, which will include:

  • Raising the berm higher to protect against larger storm surge
  • Boosting the pump station’s operating efficiency during high tides to move water out more quickly
  • Working on a comprehensive stormwater master plan to assess local vulnerabilities and identify key projects for improvement

The city expects construction for these projects to begin next fall and is expecting its master plan to be completed early next year.

In the meantime, the city also said its Public Works Department is continuing to do “regular maintenance and cleaning of canals and stormwater systems to keep them operating efficiently.”

Burnette said acquiring the money to fund these projects is another challenge, but he said he anticipates some will come from the taxpayer fund, stormwater fund, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (specifically with the project at Cambridge Canal), as well as from the state.

Until then, Stevens said she and her community will continue to rally together to raise awareness on the issue until something gets done.

“Our neighbors are amazing. Everybody is so connected in this area, especially after the storms we really came together,” she said.

Port Orange’s next city council is taking place at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 6.