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Highlands Today

Arbuckle Creek Overflows After Fay Cuts Loose

Kathy Waters/Highlands Today

Stephanie Mills of Avon Park helps carry items from her mother's house at Neibert's Fishing Resort on Wednesday just outside of Lorida. Overflow from Arbuckle Creek forced several residents of the resort to evacuate their homes.

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By DOUG CARMAN

Highlands Today

Published: August 21, 2008

SEBRING - Arbuckle Creek overflowed after Tropical Storm Fay barreled through Highlands County, causing widespread flooding that placed several neighborhoods under more than a foot of water Wednesday.

The creek's depth rose from 4 feet Monday to more than 7 feet by Wednesday, passing its flood stage and causing some nearby residents to consider evacuating their homes before the water rose any higher.

The flood also claimed Arbuckle Creek Road, which was indefinitely closed between the Highlands County Landfill and Arbuckle Branch Road east of Sebring, according to a press release from the Highlands County Engineering Department.

Dawn Allen's house was 100 yards from the creek's bank before Fay struck, she said as she saw it flowing over the bottom steps of her porch and underneath her double-wide. The house never lost power, but her husband, Richard Allen, feared that the water would take out his air conditioner if the water went up another two inches.

"We don't need this," she said as it started raining.

Campers at Neibert's Fishing Resort on U.S. 98, off the west bank of Arbuckle Creek, waded bare-foot through the murky brown water as it reached their porches. At least one trailer had water all the way to its doorstep Wednesday afternoon.

This wasn't the first time Arbuckle Creek flooded Neibert's, resort manager Fred Nicole said. He kept his bar open while the creek came within inches of its patio.

"Everybody knows what to do," he said. "We went swimming just a little bit ago."

Camp resident Frank Deeny wasn't bothered by the flood either, though his RV was on higher ground than most of his neighbors. He still had water and electric in his house.

It's just a thing that happens," he said. "Ain't nothing new for me. I think the worst of it is over."

Highlands County Lakes Manager Clell Ford disagreed, saying he did not expect the water from Arbuckle to get any lower for the next couple of days. Much of the seven to eight inches of rain that hit the eastern part of the county is still draining into the creek, and the surrounding neighborhoods are part of its flood plain, he added.

"When we get rains like this, they get flooded," he said. "There is not much that could be done.... It's going to take some time to get un-flooded, that's one of the joys of being there unfortunately."

Meanwhile, Spring Lake Improvement District Manager Joe DeCerbo reported that the flooding there already subsided by Wednesday morning. In his words, the neighborhood was "a lake" after Tropical Storm Ernesto hit Highlands County in 2006, but he blamed Tuesday's flood on Fay overwhelming the drainage systems rather than on the pumps and canals that played a role in the 2006 flood.

Arbuckle Creek was at its highest stage Wednesday since the 2004 hurricane season, Ford said.

Doug Carman can be reached at 386-5838 or dcarman@highlandstoday.com

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