MOUNT DORA, Fla. – A Lake County family is living in a camper after what officials call a “thousand-year storm” carved a massive canyon through their yard and left their home teetering on the edge of collapse, highlighting ongoing stormwater management issues in the area.
Mount Dora and Eustis received 15 to 19 inches of rain in just hours on Oct. 26, putting a strain on roads and stormwater systems.
[WATCH: Officials survey flood damage after weekend deluge in Mount Dora]
Jose Benitez and his family evacuated their Mount Dora home when flash floods devastated their property, destroying the foundation and ripping out essential utilities, including plumbing and air conditioning.
“I don’t know how it’s still standing,” Benitez said of his condemned home.
Video footage captured by Benitez moments before evacuation shows torrential water rushing through his property with devastating force.
“We started hearing the house making noise. And then that’s when we realized the house started falling in,” Benitez said. The property has since been condemned by Lake County officials due to severe erosion damage.
The incident marks the second major flooding event in the Wolf Branch Road area within a year, following damage from Hurricane Milton in 2024. County crews are currently working to repair the road again.
Benitez’s homeowner’s insurance denied his claim, citing flooding as the source of the damage. Benitez does not have flood insurance and told News 6 he does not live in a flood zone.
The family remains displaced in a temporary camper while their home stands condemned. There is an online fundraiser to help with their living expenses.
According to Benitez, floodwaters that destroyed their property swept down toward Wolf Branch Road, creating a path of destruction along its course.
[WATCH: Wolf Branch Road faces repairs after repeated flood damage]
Ongoing Drainage Issues
Lake County Commission Chairwoman Leslie Campione previously identified runoff from a nearby nursery on Britt Road as a contributing factor to the area’s flooding issues.
Campione told News 6’s Mike Valente on Oct. 28, “They have a lot of runoff that comes from that nursery, and so they were trying to pump their water and create some additional storage, but they could not pump it fast enough in order to prevent that much volume from coming downstream.”
[WATCH: Lake County approved to buy land needed for major Britt Road repairs]
In a November 2024 letter following Hurricane Milton, Campione alerted the nursery about excessive runoff, stating, “preliminary findings suggest that an inordinate amount of runoff is leaving your property during rain events. It is likely that you do not have sufficient stormwater storage or infrastructure to retain stormwater in typical rain events which is causing water quality and quantity problems.”
In a statement to News 6, a Lake County spokesperson said the nursery installed a pump to manage water flow between retention areas, designed to mitigate flooding risk to Wolf Branch Road and Timberlake Drive residents.
“The nursery installed a pump to move water from a retention area on the SE corner of their property to a location on the north side of their property with the approval of the St. Johns River Water Mgt District. The purpose of the pump was to create more stormwater retention during rain events, and draw down this pond in advance of major rain events since this particular pond drains in the direction of Wolf Branch Road and downstream to Timberlake Drive. The county appreciates their efforts to mitigate their runoff. After the last storm we reached out to the nursery and the St. Johns River Water Management District to see if more can be done to reduce runoff leaving this site but I don’t believe there has been any response or ideas about what else they are willing to do.”
Jeff Foley, Communications Manager for Lake County Government
“The plan was that the nursery would be able to reduce their runoff and by reducing their runoff, we wouldn’t really need to do a redesign of that road,” Campione told News 6. “That’s a big distinction because that was part of the overall plan. Instead of having a $3 or $4 million project with the county to rebuild this segment of the road, we were trying to reduce the runoff that was coming from the source that caused the road to blow off.”
According to Campione, it cost Lake County roughly $300,000 to repair Wolf Branch Road after the hurricane. She said it will cost around the same amount to repair the road this time around.
News 6 contacted the nursery about the recent flooding. The nursery’s operations manager maintained the pump system was not related to the latest incident.
We also reached out to the St. Johns River Water Management District, which approved the nursery’s stormwater upgrades. A spokesperson said the nursery’s stormwater infrastructure “functioned as intended” during the recent storm.
“The basin where the flooding occurred on Wolf Branch Road was a result of an extreme rain event that was 15 to 16.5 inches of rainfall in six hours on October 26.
While this level of rainfall would overwhelm nearly any permitted system, the nursery’s stormwater infrastructure functioned as intended and remains in compliance with its permit. The facility has also upgraded to a more efficient pump than the one originally permitted. The District’s regulatory authority extends to ensuring compliance with the terms of the issued permit and the system’s approved design and operation."
Danielle L. FitzPatrick, Regional Media and Communications Coordinator, St. Johns River Water Management District
Infrastructure Improvements Underway
Wolf Branch Road is expected to reopen in a few weeks, depending on the completion of work by gas and power companies, according to a news release. Lake County is adding some improvements and enhancements to the road.
[WATCH: FDOT completes initial restoration work on flood-damaged Mount Dora street]
“We’re raising the road about 12 to 18 inches so that we can handle some of the runoff that might come over the road, but we’re shoring up some of the sides of the road itself and we’re adding two additional large culverts in a system that will be able to handle more runoff,” Campione stated.
In a news release, officials said the area has been the subject of a comprehensive hydrogeological study due to its extreme topography, ponds at high elevations, and springs. They said a project of this size requires coordination with and approval of State and Federal agencies.