Kevin Giordano is preparing to clear his South Daytona house of flood water once again after Hurricane Milton brought heavy rains to the area starting Wednesday.
Giordano has lived in the Big Tree Village neighborhood for 30 years.
“It rose to about 12 inches inside my house, and pretty much most of the neighborhood,” Giordano said. “Big Tree [Village] got wet and was underwater, pretty much close to what Hurricane Ian did. So now it's time to just let it all drain out, and then rip it apart again and rebuild it.”
He has experience with that.
Giordano renovated three other homes in the neighborhood after Hurricane Ian’s 2022 deluge, which produced over 13 inches of rainwater at the Daytona Beach International Airport, according to the National Weather Service. Giordano had just finished renovating his own home before Milton. The back-to-back hurricane-related floods have been the worst floods he can recall in at least 20 years.
This year, the NWS observed more than 15 inches of water, bringing devastating flooding throughout Volusia. Four lives were reportedly lost in the county and a total of 17 throughout the state.
Currently, Volusia is providing a long-term shelter at the Volusia County Fairgrounds in DeLand and is working to bring in FEMA assistance to help people
On Friday, the water in Big Tree Village was between thigh and waist-deep on some roads. The neighborhood had vehicles stuck in the water. Those conditions were no problem for 22-year-old Khalid Itani, of South Daytona, who was driving his truck, which had a lift, through Milton’s flood waters.
Itani and his brother were entering the neighborhood Friday afternoon, having gotten back earlier from Tennessee, where they had evacuated ahead of the storm.
They got home and discovered water inside their home -- but not as bad as they expected.
“This year we only had five, six inches in the house. Last year was like 13 to 16 inches,” Itani said.
They got what they needed and got out of the house.
Driving through the neighborhood, the brothers offered to assist anyone walking through the water by letting them hop into the truck bed.
“You definitely need a truck with a lift or anything with an aggressive tire. Other than that, I suggest [you] don't drive on these roads,” he said. “All these newer vehicles, they have the intake on the bottom, so as soon as the water gets into it, the motor's gone.”
Itani’s family owns three Mike’s Discount Tires stores: two in South Daytona and one in Edgewater.
“One in South Daytona did all right. Not too much damage to it, but the one on Mason Avenue got flooded and the windows got busted, and the one in Edgewater, the roof came off,” he said. “It definitely hurt this time.”
In Edgewater, just 16 miles south of Big Tree Village, Milton’s flood waters had receded much quicker by Friday afternoon, but drainage areas in the community of Florida Shores were still blocked by debris and contained sitting water.
Weeks before Milton, the Edgewater community of Florida Shores was dealing with problematic flooding from thunderstorms -- shutting off roadways with waist-deep water.
Residents believe the flooding issues are a result of overdevelopment from nearby communities that are built higher than Florida Shores, causing the water to flow into the neighborhood.
The City of Edgewater informed residents ahead of Milton that preparations had been made and stormwater systems had been cleared.
Still, Claudia Adkins, who lives in Florida Shores with her husband and 1-year-old son, was scared of what Milton might do.
The Adkins family fortified their house with 100 sandbags around the entrances, they had two sump pumps to run water into ditches, and a utility terrain vehicle Adkins borrowed from her father-in-law in case they needed to escape during the storm.
During the storm, Milton’s rain began to flood the backyard. Adkins, her husband, and a few neighbors began digging a trench from the backyard to the drainage ditch in the front of the house using shovels and machetes to take care of tree roots.
A couple of hours later, a nearby berm from a neighboring community broke and let water into Florida Shores. Shortly thereafter, Adkins said water was pushing into the garage and the front porch, which had been barricaded with sandbags and a tarp.
“Yeah, I was scared,” Adkins said. “If it got worse, we were just gonna leave and head to higher ground.”
Her husband got a shop vac and began pumping water away from the front door.
“By the grace of god, it stopped,” Adkins said.
But enough was enough. Adkins is tired of having to worry about water and wants a better home for her son.
“We're hoping that we can find some higher ground elsewhere and move on and just say goodbye,” she said. “It sucks because I don't want to leave somebody else with the problem, but having a child live with this, is just not fair to him.”
The threat of more flooding remains even with Milton long gone. Volusia County is warning residents near Lake Harney, Astor, and those along the St. Johns River that more flooding is expected when those water bodies crest later this month due to all the rain from the storm.
