Thanks to hurricanes Milton and Helene, Tampa set a new yearly rainfall record, and it's only October. The National Weather Service said the city broke a record that has stood since 1957.
All that water is pushing some rivers to record highs, including the Hillsborough near Zephyrhills. The river eventually empties into Tampa Bay at downtown Tampa.
Cypress Creek, which flows south from Pasco County into the Hillsborough, has caused flooding in many areas, including the Lake Padgett East subdivision in Land O'Lakes.
And there are reports of major flooding at the Willow Ridge neighborhood, just off Kathleen Road, north of Lakeland. As many as 127 homes have been reported to be cut off by high water.
Flooding is particularly bad on the Withlacoochee, which flows north through Pasco, Hernando and Citrus counties.
Mark Fulkerson is an engineer with the Southwest Florida Water Management District. He says some areas downriver are bracing for high water that might not come for a few weeks.
"We're seeing on the Withlacoochee River, it hasn't crested at very many locations at all yet," Fulkerson said. "It's only crested in the Green Swamp coming out the Withlacoochee and it's going to be three more weeks before we see the peak of flooding along the Withlacoochee at its downstream end."
The river is the state's second-longest at 160 miles, so it has many tributaries feeding water into it before it flows north and empties into the Gulf in Citrus County.
"We got all that rain from Milton. And it's been sunny for 2-3 weeks and then all of a sudden the rivers keep coming up, rising, rising, flooding properties, flooding homes," Fulkerson said. "And that's what happens in some of these river systems."
"...the flooding like this has occurred in the past and will will occur in the future. It's just an epic event this time with Milton." - Mark Fulkerson
It's the worst flooding recorded on the river in a century. But Fulkerson said the key message here is flooding has occurred this bad in the past. And just because we haven't recorded, it doesn't mean it didn't happen.
"Some of our longer standing gauges, they, they show that these rivers have been higher in the past at certain locations," Fulkerson said. "Some of these gauges might have made records and this was a monumental event and it, it continues to be a monumental flood event for many areas as these floodwaters persist. But you know, the flooding like this has occurred in the past and will will occur in the future. It's just an epic event this time with Milton."
The water district can control water flows in some areas. The Tampa Bypass Canal was built after Hurricane Donna devastated the area in the 1960's, bypassing the Hillsborough River before it goes through populated areas.
He says they have more than 80 water control structures in 16 counties. They include the outfall of Lake Tarpon and farther north on Lake Rousseau, near the Withlacoochee's mouth as it enters the Gulf.
"But we can't control water levels everywhere and, and this type of flooding was inevitable regardless." - Mark Fulkerson
"So prior to Milton, we were moving as much water out as we could," he said. "Storms like this come up quick. You don't get much notice when they're coming and we were at the end of the wet season, so everything's full. So we did everything we could moving water out of all of our systems prior to Milton."
"But one kind of key message with all this is even though we have structures and we can move water at times and we do the best we can," Fulkerson said. "But we can't control water levels everywhere and, and this type of flooding was inevitable regardless."
