Lakeland resident Mike Coker and his wife stood on the front corner of their property, mere feet from passing traffic on Longfellow Boulevard, talking to a family friend on Monday afternoon. It’s the only spot that wasn’t underwater.
Rain from Hurricane Milton has poured into Lake Bonny, causing the lake’s edge to creep forward roughly 350 feet to lap at the east side of Longfellow Boulevard. Coker said he’s spotted fish swimming through his front yard.
“All the water is still coming up, the water level is still rising,” Coker said Monday afternoon.
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Coker and his wife said they’ve lived in east Lakeland for almost 50 years and have never seen Lake Bonny flood like this. The couple were running three sump pumps trying to keep the invading water out of the windows of their home, before it began seeping up through the home’s original oak flooring.
“The boards have rippled, water is seeping up through the floors even in our bathrooms,” the wife said, almost too distraught to talk.
The Cokers said a Polk County sheriff’s deputy driving by called out a window to ask if they were okay, but otherwise they had yet to hear any word from officials or authorities five days after the storm.
“We can’t get no relief, I don’t know what’s happening,” he said, shaking his head.
The Cokers aren’t alone. From Lake Bonnie Mobile Home Park south a half mile along Longfellow Boulevard to Bonny Shores Mobile Home Park, everything east of the road has wound up swallowed by the floodwaters from Lake Bonny.
Tera Glass used a walking stick to hike out of nearly waist-high water from her mobile home in the southwest corner of Bonny Shores Mobile Home Park. Glass, who has lived there since 2019, said the park experiences minor flooding after heavy thunderstorms, but never on this level.
“You know all these people who wanted lakefront property,” she said, with a laugh. “Now we got gators swimming in our yards.”
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Paul Chenevert, a Bonny Shores resident who helps with the park’s maintenance, said Bonny Shores had some standing water since Hurricane Debbie in August. The park was in communication with the Southwest Florida Water Management District to find a possible solution, Chenevert said, as a pump was being discussed.
Unfortunately, it’s too late.
Nearly every road in the 55-plus senior community is flooded, some with up to five feet of water. Fortunately, Chenevert said only about 40 residents were in the park when Milton hit, as some left for motel rooms on high grounds and others are owned by seasonal snowbirds.
“It’s rough right now, and it’s going to get a lot rougher the longer this water sits,” he said.
Residents pulled on knee-high boots, while others brought out canoes and kayaks to get around. A North Carolina resident drove down to survey the damage, found the sunroom of his home a twisted pile of metal crumpled on top of a brick foundation.
The park’s two lift stations have stopped functioning during the storm, in part because of flooding. Four portable toilets were brought in Monday afternoon, as residents were encouraged to use those rather than keep flushing their toilets.
“We will lose residents this time,” Chenevert said. “When something like this happens, people are looking for somebody or something to blame it on. The park is getting the blame, but it’s a 100-year storm. What are you going to do?”
Two men sat outside the community office, discussing their plans to relocate out of the area. The park’s manager, Cathy Cox, declined to comment to The Ledger.
Residents were thankful to a few nameless “street angels” who loaded up water and donated food on various boats, going door-to-door through the community handing out meals.
Debra Bershak, 66, a homeowner on Shakespeare Street, said she has growing concerns for the safety of Bonny Shores’ residents.
“Some of them are in their 80s or 90s, they are afraid and many haven’t had electricity,” she said.
Bershak, who lived in the area for more than 20 years, stood looking out over her flooded backyard. Drainage along Shakespeare Road has always been an issue, as she watched rain pour through Shakespeare down the streets of Bonny Shores mobile home park into the lake.
“The rain comes down this road like a river and floods my property,” she said. “During the storm, there was a river that kept coming and coming.”
Bershak said she’s created a barrier on the eastern uphill boundary of her property consisting of 95 sandbags in front of a trench that’s become a seasonal fixture. She credits it with being the only reason her front yard wasn’t as flooded as her backyard.
Her shed has a mark, Bershak said, that she made Thursday following the storm to mark the water level. As of Monday afternoon, it remained relatively unchanged.
“It’s gone down maybe one-eighth of an inch?” she said. “We hopefully have dry weather coming all week long, but I don’t know about next week.”
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: On Lake Bonny in Lakeland, Milton brings unprecedented flooding
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