Northwest Lakeland residents work hard to bounce back after Hurricane Milton

Polk County cleans up after Hurricane Milton

Carla Bayron reports

LAKELAND, Fla. - Northwest Lakeland experienced a lot of flooding from the heavy rainfall caused by Hurricane Milton.

Tony Patel's liquor store off Knights Station Road is full of mud.

"It came up to eight inches right here," said Patel.

It's flooding he hasn't seen in all his 24 years in Northwest Lakeland, and he blames it on a multitude of things.

READ: Polk County deputies drive pregnant woman in labor to hospital during Hurricane Milton

"The reason why it's flooding, I'm assuming, is there's Blackwater Creek behind us that hasn't been cleaned up for 10 years," said Patel. "Plus, all the water has been coming over to this side because of an apartment building on the other side of the road. All the water has been sitting on the ground and not drained out. That's the reason we likely got flood over here. Usually we don't get flooded."

The Polk County Sheriff's Office shared photos taken from their helicopter on Thursday of all the homes in the area surrounded or submerged in water from the heavy rainfall. They've performed 25 rescues from flood waters since the hurricane.

Since the water receded Friday, homeowners have been busy cleaning up their yards from debris. Linemen also worked diligently to fix downed power lines and poles snapped in half in order to restore electricity to thousands.

Patel says he has a pretty good clientele, so he hopes to be back in business soon.

"Our neighborhood is like family members, you know?" said Patel. "As soon as possible, it would be better, otherwise we'll be staying closed until the lights come back."

Which could take up to a week.

As of 4 p.m. Friday, Lakeland Electric reported there are now 30,600 customers without power. That's down from 90,000 early Thursday morning. They estimate that power will take at least seven days to be restored.

STAY CONNECTED WITH FOX 13 TAMPA: