MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. — As more rain falls in Manatee County, more residents are becoming worried about flooding in their homes and on their properties.


What You Need To Know

  • Barabara Ficklin lives off of Waterlie Road in Bradenton and says her property has flooded four times post Debby 

  • Due to the flooding, she has had to move her horses around to keep them dry and healthy

  • Ficklin blames rainfall and runoff from nearby developments as to why her property is flooding this badly

  • Manatee residents impacted by Debby can apply for help from FEMA

Everywhere you go on Barbara Ficklin’s 7-acre property, you hear sloshing sounds.

She says it’s water that has receded from flooding her property, not just during Debby but several times since then.

"It’s flooded four times. Normal rain has flooded it four times in the past seven days," she said.

She says the most flooding on her property reached two feet high during Debby. The most recent flooding was on Friday, and she says it’s from rainfall and runoff from nearby developments. She’s worried that with more rain to come, it will flood the inside of her house.

PHOTOS: FICKLIN PROPERTY FLOODING IN MANATEE COUNTY

 

"When the rainstorms happen initially, we don’t see this flooding. We’re like, 'Oh, okay.' And then as it goes on, now we’re only talking an hour-long rainstorm. Towards the end of the rainstorm, we start seeing the water rise, and then a few hours later, it’s within 12-feet of our house, sometimes 5-feet or 3-feet," she said.

Throughout all of this, her main concern is for her horses.

"Their hooves don’t tolerate it, and they get diseases," she said.

During Debby, she had to load them up on a trailer and evacuate them for a week because everything was flooded.

"So this is our horse pasture. Normally, our horses would be way out in it, but it’s so mucky, and horses cannot stand in water or muck, so we’re not able to put them out to graze and eat," she said.

But now that they are home again, they have to stay where it’s dry, and the only place is their stalls. Ficklin says it has cost her a couple of thousand dollars to make it dry.

"Now that we don’t have pasture, we have to keep them in their stalls. So we raised up the floor in there, put mats down, then sawdust, and we have a retainer against the edge to hold it in for now until we can do something permanent," she said.

But with us being in the rainy season and more rainfall projected this week, Ficklin says she’s worried about her animals.

"I mean, you think you have everything good, and then something like this happens, and you’re like, 'Oh my gosh, now what?' What do we have to do now?'," she said.

Barbara fears what could happen with more rain, but she is working on her own plan to keep her animals and house safe.

There is a Manatee County Commissioners meeting tomorrow at 9 a.m. where Barbara and other residents plan on voicing their concerns.