‘You can go fishing in my front yard’: Withlacoochee River continues to rise

HERNANDO, Fla. (WFLA) — It has been two weeks since Hurricane Milton hit, and there are some parts of the Tampa Bay area still facing a major flood threat.

Experts say that water is going to keep rising.

Residents along the Withlacoochee River could see eight to nine more inches of water.

John O’Neal took 8 On Your Side through the floodwaters in the Arrowhead neighborhood of Citrus County to see the devastation first hand.

“That’s the river right there on the other side of that house,” he said.

O’Neal said he can see a visible difference in areas that were dry just 24 hours prior.

His wife, Brenda, took WFLA around their house to see just how far the water had come up.

“You can go fishing in my front yard,” she said.

They’re just inches away from a flooded home.

“We’ve all been through the floods,” Brenda said. “I guess it’s what we chose to do, where we chose to live.”

“Sometimes we live on the river and sometimes we live in it,” she said.

91-year-old William ‘Bill’ Owens has lived in their neighborhood for 78 years.

He said this isn’t the worst he’s ever seen, but it is few and far between.

“’84, ’93, ’04, and then this one here,” he said.

So why is the water still rising this long after the hurricanes hit?

“It’s hard for people to grasp that it’s two weeks after the storm, it’s going to be three weeks after the storm, and the water level is slowly inching up and inching up,” Southwest Florida Water Management District Chief Professional Engineer Mark Fulkerson said. “Everyone is wondering how much higher, when is it going to peak, how much higher is it going to get?”

For the Arrowhead neighborhood, Fulkerson said people can expect the water to rise another eight or nine inches within the next week.

But he said getting back to normal won’t happen anytime soon.

“It takes about a week for that water to drop a single foot,” Fulkerson said. “It may be weeks, probably in that neighborhood. It’s going to be months before some of those areas dry out and get back to normal.”

The Citrus County Sheriff’s Office said there is a curfew prohibiting travel north of C-39 from Highway 200 to Highway 41 and all travel east of Highway 200 from the Marion County line south to Posselt Drive and east of North Nature Trail from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.

Deputies said the following roadways are already starting to flood and could close as water levels continue to rise:

• 5830 E River Rd to 6401 E River Road
• E Cane Ct.
• N Curls Point
• E Channel Dr. from N Mound Dr.
• 6744 E Channel Dr. to 6589 E Channel Dr.
• E Duffy Ct.
• N Broken Arrow Trail
• N Heidi Dr. and N Nature Trail
• 6615 N Heidi Dr.
• E Riverside Dr. (off C-39)

The Citrus County Sheriff’s Office said the following boat ramps accessing the Withlacoochee River are closed:

• Goldendale Ave.12199 N. Goldendale Ave. in Dunnellon
• Spruce Dr.4863 E. Spruce Drive in Dunnellon
• Trail’s End12300 E. Trails End Road in Floral City
• Withlapopka10851 E. Gobbler Dr. in Floral City
• Turner Camp Road9460 E. Turner Camp Road in Inverness

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