Residents react to flooding in Punta Gorda neighborhood

It took less than an hour of heavy rain to leave this Punta Gorda neighborhood underwater.

“In the year that we’ve been here there’s never been this bad of flooding,” said Sandy Miller, who’s car was flooded.

Almost all of the New Tuscany Isles development in Punta Gorda was flooded, and stranded people like Miller as they she tried to get home.

“The neighbors were waving their hands and everything to slow down, well as I drove through I was trying to accelerate enough to get through it, but I wasn’t able to,” Miller said. “It died.”

In some areas, the water was more than one foot deep.

“I tried to, attempted to get out of the car, and the water rushed in about five inches into my car,” Miller said.

Homeowner Katherine Garner also expressed her concerns with the flooding.

“We were really afraid it was going to come into the house,” Garner said.

Neighbors say the problem of ongoing street flooding comes from a poor drainage system still controlled by developer KB Home.

“I looks like every time we get a large rain the the drainage system doesn’t work and we get this flood in here,” said homeowner Robert Gibson. “Every time a car would go by a wake, literally a wake of water would go into their garage so it was kind of a mess.”

They added the drains are clogged with construction debris, so they want KB Home to clear them out before the problems get worse.

“We’re concerned about the water,” said homeowner Barbara Fries. “If it doesn’t get better it’s only going to get worse and then when the turnover happens we, every homeowners in this subdivision is going to be responsible for this.”

KB Homes provided a statement to WINK News:

“KB Home was made aware that there are certain roads in the Tuscany Isles community that have been impacted by flooding due to the recent rains. We are working with the community Homeowner’s Association and have experts and engineers on-site to determine the specific area of cause. Interim measures are being put in place to help alleviate the water and help protect the homes and streets until the root cause is identified. We will continue to work with the community Homeowner’s Association and communicate with our KB homeowners.”