Flooding from Debby prompts evacuations in west Lakeland
LAKELAND, Fla. - Homeowners are busy cleaning up their yards and neighborhoods after trees and power lines fell from Hurricane Debby's strong winds and heavy rainfall.
Others are finding a place to stay for the night after needing to be evacuated because of flooding.
In the area of Cannon Street and Jensen Avenue in west Lakeland, Polk County deputies checked more than 40 homes and rescued six adults, four children and two dogs from the flooded waters in their swamp buggy.
"It was just coming down in buckets at 6:00 this morning and it was something we've never seen before. It was coming down so heavy," said Starla Yednak.
Yednak's driveway remains impassable. She lives in the Fussels Corner area of Polk County, and her entire backyard flooded to the point she had to rescue 25 of her chickens and her pet tortoise.
"That's all we can do is keep our animals safe," said Yednak. "Just like you keep yourself safe, you have to keep your animals safe too. We're very blessed because we are safe, our home is safe, and our animals may all be in our house, but they're all safe."
Some drivers also stalled in flooded streets, including Reynolds Road near Winter Lake Road. Much – if not all – of the standing water has receded since the morning.
Paul Womble, Polk County's Director of Emergency Management, says the western part of the county received eight or so inches of rain.
"We had, I think, four tornado warnings that occurred yesterday afternoon and even two this morning," said Womble. "No confirmed touchdown or anything like [that], but you know, those high winds brings down power lines and trees."
At a mobile home community in Mulberry, people had to break out the chainsaws to clean up a tree that fell across their road, otherwise they were trapped.
Womble said the power outage numbers were around 8,000 as of Monday morning, and that's way down now.
He added no injuries to people were reported.
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