Expand / Collapse search
☰

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers remove auxiliary pumps along Lake Bonny

By
Published  December 3, 2024 6:18pm EST
Polk County
FOX 13 News

Army Corp of Engineers to remove Lake Bonny pumps

FOX 13's Carla Bayron caught up with one resident who talked about the return to normalcy.

LAKELAND. Fla. - After over a month, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers removed auxiliary pumps along Lake Bonny.

The pumps were installed on the northwest corner of the lake after many residents whose homes and streets were flooded following Hurricane Milton pleaded to local, county, and state officials for relief and demanded accountability and transparency.

Laymon Hackney lives in the Lakeland Livin mobile home community on Longfellow Blvd. He says the worst of the flooding is behind him now, but he still needs to do a lot of work around his home to get things back to normal.

Lake Bonny with receded water levels months after Hurricane Milton.

Lake Bonny with receded water levels months after Hurricane Milton.

READ: Lake Bonny residents voicing new concerns after Milton as nonprofit offers help

"It ruined our lives for more than a month," said Hackney. "We have a lot of cleanup. A lot of dead things and things in the way. Debris everywhere."

Because Lake Bonny's water levels are now below flood stage, the U.S. Army Corps Engineers removed three auxiliary pumps and 9,000 ft. of piping that carried water from Lake Bonny to Lake Parker, which will eventually drain into the Peace River.

A City of Lakeland pump installed in 2019 will remain to regulate water levels on the lake.

"We know that the pump we have installed that was intended to assist with a 10-year rain event certainly can't handle the influx of water we experienced with Hurricane Milton," said city spokesperson Kevin Cook. 

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers along Lake Bonny.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers along Lake Bonny.

Cook continued, "That's something that the multi-agencies, especially the city of Lakeland, Polk County, and the Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD), will explore further."

READ: Hillsborough Sheriff Chad Chronister withdraws from President-elect Trump's DEA nomination

According to Hackney, he wishes those in power had listened to residents' calls for help sooner so the pumps from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could have arrived sooner.

"I hope they realize they should pay attention to the people who live on the lake that know what the lake does so this doesn't happen again because if the lake were at the level it is now, it wouldn't have flooded like that," Hackney said.

Cook said the city will conduct a stormwater study sometime in the future that will include the Lake Bonny drainage basin.

Press play above to watch FOX 13 News live:

    STAY CONNECTED WITH FOX 13 TAMPA: