‘I’ll never live on another lake’: Milton rainwater still surrounds homes along Lake Bonny

LAKELAND, Fla. (WFLA) — “Everything’s underwater. I got two generators underwater,” said Layman Hackney from a boat he now uses to traverse Lakeland Livin’ mobile home park.

The boat’s battery, he said, was given to him by the Salvation Army.

The mobile home park is located along Lake Bonny, where water has overflowed into homes and mobile home parks all along the shoreline.

“I live on the lake and I’ll never live on another lake,” said Hackney.

Hackney said he noticed throughout the rainy summer Lake Bonny’s water level was high.

He was worried about what would happen if a major storm hit.

Enter Hurricane Milton.

“Now they’re saying the rivers are full, we can’t pump with so much but they had three months where they could have pumped wide open and they never did. So they got a story and I got a story,” he said.

Kevin Cook, Lakeland’s Communications Director, said the city has been pushing 5,000 gallons of water per minute from Lake Bonny into Lake Parker since Aug. 5.

Hurricane Milton made the situation a lot worse by dropping 12 inches of rain in 24 hours.

That rainfall caused levels to rise in not only Lake Bonny but also bodies of water downstream, including Lake Hancock and the Peace River.

“Unfortunately Lake Bonny is a low-lying lake and the way storm water drains, we still have continued seepage going into that lake,” said Cook. “I understand the frustration of the Lake Bonny residents, I really really do. My heart and compassion goes out to them but it’s unprecedented rainfall that has caused this.”

“Oh my gosh, it’s devastating,” said Wally Allington, who lives in Bonny Shores mobile home park.

Allington, who is staying at a home in Lakeland Livin’ mobile home park while his home is surrounded by water, said he is grateful to be alive.

“At least we didn’t lose our lives like North Carolina and up in Tennessee,” he said.

He and other residents will be attending city and county meetings next week.

“I want my voice to be heard with everybody else, see what we can do,” said Allington.

“I don’t care whose fault it is, I just want somebody to do something about it so it never happens again,” said Hackney.

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