Flooding fears for residents in Gotha

GOTHA, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - The stink of dead fish, water up to the front door, and a huge pile of dirt in the yard holding back even more water - that's life for Sean Dougherty and his family, now.

“Wake up every morning, go to school,” Dougherty said, “water's up at least a couple inches. Over time, that adds-up. Every day more fish die. The smell is just pretty bad.”

Dougherty remembers what it used to be like. “I'd come out here fishing every day, catch big fish. Can't really do that anymore, a lot of the big fish died.”

David Boers also lives near the pond and helped build the berm a couple weeks ago when the flooding got really bad.

“In '03-'04 the Turnpike did a major expansion,” Boers said, “they doubled the size of the impervious land. In conjunction with that, we saw zero effort in the retention or doing any improvements on the stormwater retention.”

FDOT released a statement saying: "The project included floodplain compensation, and a design that did not increase roadway runoff to any adjacent roads, homes, or developments. The privately-owned flooded area in question is within a designated 'Zone A' FEMA floodplain with no positive outfall."

“With that, I say: if they did do it correct to a DOT standard, then why are we here today?” Boers replied, “why do we have hundreds of dead fish floating around our pond and why did we have to build a dam to stop it?”

Dougherty said regardless of whose fault it is, they need to fix the problem. “They need to get their act together and do something, because all these meetings and arguments don't help that get done.”

Orange County commissioners say engineers are inspecting the area to figure out exactly where the water is coming from.