Hurricane Milton devastated coastal communities across the greater Tampa Bay region, but inland areas were hit just as hard.

Tracy Boyette has lived near Lakeland for 17 years—but her home, or what’s left of it, is almost unrecognizable.

“Everything was damaged,” Boyette told WUSF. “I’ve never seen mold grow so fast, spreading up the walls. It got into places I never imagined.”

She and her husband, Danny, initially thought they had made it through the storm. But in the days that followed, floodwaters from a nearby basin kept rising. Then one morning, they woke up to water in their bedroom.

Now, for months, they’ve been living in an RV parked in their front yard.

“You have to learn to live with less,” Tracy said. “You don’t have what you’re used to. You constantly have to remind yourself, ‘Oh, I can’t do that’ or ‘I can’t have that.’”

The ordeal has been even more overwhelming since Tracy was recently diagnosed with early-onset dementia.

“People with dementia need stability, structure. I’ve had none of that,” she said.

Danny, who works as a security guard, is struggling to keep up with their financial burdens.

“I still have to work, we still have bills,” he said. “Now we’re paying for an RV rental on top of our mortgage. That hasn’t stopped.”

The home continues to develop damp spots, making it difficult to retrieve paperwork or belongings.

“This whole thing still feels like I’m watching it on TV,” Tracy explained to WUSF.

Fearing What’s Next

Across the street, firefighter Jarrod Smith’s home also suffered heavy damage.

“The water flooded the entire patio, back porch, and seeped through the sliding glass doors,” he said, pointing to the worst-hit areas.

During the storm, Smith was on duty. When he returned, floodwaters from the basin were rising fast. He and his family managed to move their furniture before the water entered, but it took weeks before a temporary pump reduced the flooding.

“It felt like we had to scream on social media just to get help,” Smith said.

Heather Sawtelle, who lives at the end of their cul-de-sac, didn’t have water enter her home, but the flooding trapped her and her disabled veteran husband for weeks.

“We had alligators in our front yard,” she said.

Food had to be delivered to her by boat. When her husband fell in the floodwater while trying to leave, he contracted E. coli.

“I didn’t even know if he would make it,” she said. “And there were others in the neighborhood who needed help but couldn’t get it.”

Now, she and her husband are replacing parts of their flooring that absorbed floodwaters.

Smith and his family are renting a nearby home while waiting on assistance. Months later, he hasn’t received a dime from his insurance and only got $750 from FEMA. Even if he repairs the home, he’s hesitant to sell it without a guarantee from the county that this won’t happen again.

“I don’t want to put someone else in this situation,” Smith said.

Many residents are calling for a permanent pump to be installed in the basin.

“We’re not against new development,” Sawtelle said. “But fix the drainage first. Don’t flood our homes just to build new ones.”

Challenges with Flood Management

Paul Womble, Polk County’s emergency management director, says addressing the issue isn’t that simple.

“When you pump water, it has to go somewhere,” he said. “You can’t just move it out of one neighborhood and flood another.”

Changes to building codes would only impact future developments, not existing homes.

“That area is known to flood,” Womble said. “Development may have played a role, but maybe not.”

He acknowledges that many in Polk County are still struggling in the storm’s aftermath. But government programs, he says, primarily offer short-term solutions like temporary housing—not long-term fixes.

“People expect the government to make them whole again, to restore everything exactly as it was before the disaster,” Womble said. “But that’s not how these programs work.”

Still, he insists that lessons learned from Milton will improve Polk’s future response.

“If this happened again, we’d deploy pumps faster and ensure emergency access remains open,” he said.

Stuck in Limbo

For Tracy Boyette, navigating recovery aid is exhausting.

“All the paperwork they ask for—it’s impossible to find during a flood,” she said. “FEMA, the Red Cross, they want everything instantly, but it’s not that easy.”

A new state program offers homeowners financial assistance to elevate their homes, covering 75% of the cost. But even that’s out of reach for the Boyettes.

“With everything else, we just can’t afford it,” Tracy said. “Mold remediation alone cost us $61,000. Who’s paying for that?”

For now, they feel stuck.

“We can’t move forward,” Danny said. “We can’t rebuild. We can’t even plan for the future.”

Before the storm, Tracy took solace in her garden. Now, her plants and greenhouses are gone. The remaining ones are decayed.

“It’s hard to stay happy. It’s very lonely,” she said.

She used to put up an elaborate Christmas display each year. If she ever gets the chance again, she says she’ll leave the lights on all year long.

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(Image credit: Lakeland Ledger)

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