Cody Gilkes is tired and frustrated.
“It’s stressful man. It’s a lot of work. Then you get a stupid wheel barrow like this, that’s a piece of {expletive}.”
He’s putting sandbags out to protect his Bass Lake home, a house he’s just about finished renovating.
“Everybody else seems to be getting back to normal and all their waters are flooding back down into our area,” he said.
RELATED: Voluntary evacuation order in effect for select Pasco County residents
Bass Lake, along with Crane’s Roost and Lake Worrell are all neighborhoods where flooding has been an issue for the last four years.
Crystal Weeks says they can’t use their plumbing because of an overflowing septic tank.
“We tried to talk with the county and we don’t seem to get any answers. We don’t get any help. They have pumps and lots of retention that they built. None of the pumps are on,” said Weeks.
Two years ago after days of rain and terrible flooding, we reported about how Pasco County planned to use pumps and flood gates to re-direct the way water flows.
Friday deputies and County Commissioner Mike Wells went out on the water to clear any debris that might be blocking the flow.
But with water already covering streets and threatening homes, the hope is that no more rain comes to make it worse.
“Keep your fingers crossed,” said Weeks.
Pasco County sent us the following statement:
EFFORTS TO HELP RESIDENTS IN BASS LAKE AREA:
Many people want to know what Pasco County Government is doing to try to help the flooding the Bass Lake area?
Stormwater/Utilities does a number of things to try to alleviate flooding including pumping and today 9/15 stormwater crews are trying to remove any debris blockage to help increase water flow.
Another thing stormwater does during times of flooding in Bass Lake include opening gates to try and improve water flow. Normally water will flow into Rocky Sink (sinkhole). When Ricky Sink gets filled with water it tends to stop water flow. So in 2009 a project was built that has multiple flood gates, they can be opened to change the direction of the water to go upstream to the Pithlachascotee (Cotee) River. See video the Public Information Office did in 2015 to show how the process works:
Watershed Video Tour:
• https://youtu.be/sOF5chREDGg (English)
• https://youtu.be/CVadfkgYTOA (in Spanish)
Doug Tobin/PIO
