MULBERRY, Fla. — Neighbors in a large subdivision located in Mulberry are sharing their concerns when heavy rain moves through Polk County.
The rain makes the only entrance and exit to Imperial Lakes impassable. These concerns have been brought to the Polk County Commission as residents search for a solution.
"So, it's just one way in one way out," Joan Pezzani said.
Pezzani has lived in the Imperial Lakes subdivision for more than three years. She said in recent weeks, heavy rainfall closed down the entry road. Neighbors had to park their cars a walk a mile and a half, in the rain, to get home.
"It's been a mess," Pezzani said. "And it's not just the once in a while, this has gone on in years past from heavy rains... And it's just like, you know, people are stuck."
Pezzani shared a video with 10 Tampa Bay, showing the flooded roads as drivers tested their luck passing through them to get home. Hours later, driving was no longer an option.
"The sheriff had shut down the whole street," Pezzani said. "This was a normal Florida rainstorm that we had, this is every time we get rain. It keeps flooding."
10 Tampa Bay took these concerns to the Polk County Director of Roads and Drainage, Jay Jarvis. He said the neighborhood roads were developed roughly 50 years ago.
"We got five inches of rain in like two hours," Jarvis said. "And those events, most sewer systems aren't made to address that."
Jarvis said the county is considering purchasing a dozen acres of land to create a storage pond for the neighborhood. The project is scheduled for county board approval in July.
"That design will take somewhere probably 8 to 10 months to get done and permitted. And then we'll start working on the construction," Jarvis said.
Jarvis said the soonest construction will be completed is the end of 2025.
For some neighbors — that's too long.
"So we need that quick fix. And that's what I'm saying, look, I don't care if you dig a trench along the side," Pezzani said.
Imperial Lakes subdivision is home to nearly 10,000 people.
Concerns were raised if an overgrown creek in the subdivision was worsening this flooding. The county director of roads and drainage said clearing that creek could help, but wouldn't prevent the flooding from happening.
Malique Rankin is a general assignment reporter with 10 Tampa Bay. You can email her story ideas at mrankin@10tampabay.com and follow her Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages.