A Seffner family who were forced to evacuate their home as Hurricane Irma was hitting the Bay Area, lost everything they own to flood water and believe a recently constructed culvert greatly contributed to the problem.

  • Seffner family flooded out by Irma believes Hillsborough project contributed to problem
  • The family of four decided to ride out Irma in their boarded up home on the five acre property
  • The family evacuated as hurricane Irma’s Category 1 winds, ranging between 39 to 73 miles-per-hour, were punishing their home
  • https://www.youcaring.com/joshdonelleaveriandbrysoncasselman-946583

“We need some help getting this drainage issue resolved,” said Josh Casselman, 39. “Now our house is flooded. Who knows, has it compromised the foundation? Everything has been destroyed.”

The homeowner said flood water never got close to his porch until Hillsborough County rebuilt a culvert on Valrico Road last year. Casselman said now rain water almost reaches the porch during summer storms.

“The last six weeks, those few thunderstorms in the afternoon have caused this water to rise,” he said. “We’ve been here since 2005, and we’ve had water, but nothing like what we’ve seen in the past six weeks. So, something has drastically changed in the past year.”

The family of four decided to ride out Irma in their boarded up home on the five acre property.

“Of course, this is a relatively low area anyway and we kind realized that," said Casselman. "We expect to have certain low spots."

They family also had relatives seeking shelter in their home.

“We had four adults, four children, three pets and two cats inside,” Casselman said. “It was our choice to stay here. We didn’t think it would flood, obviously, otherwise we wouldn’t have.”

Casselman said it was about 1:30 a.m. last Monday and he was trying to sleep on the floor with his dog when he felt something wet.

“I thought perhaps the dog had relieved herself,” he said. “I reached around and then I realized it was cold water and it was everywhere. We flicked on a couple of flashlights, got everybody up. My wife called 911. They said, ‘sorry, there’s nothing we can do.’”

Donelle Casselman, 40, said she woke up to find her husband in a frantic panic due to the water on the floor. The family evacuated as hurricane Irma’s Category 1 winds, ranging between 39 to 73 miles-per-hour, were punishing their home.

“We tried to get out and the pressure was so fierce that we could not even push open the door to the garage,” she said. “My husband got stuck in between the garage and the door and my brother had to literally push it open to get us out.”

The family said they called Todd Herndon and Buddy Gutierrez from The Car Store to rescue them in a big truck. Donelle said walking to that truck while carrying children and pets in the treacherous conditions was extremely difficult.

“It felt like we were swimming at the beach with an undertow. That’s almost how it felt,” she said. “I had my niece over my head. Thankfully, I didn’t trip... My daughter had one of our cats in a pillow case.”

The family survived the last second evacuation but their house did not and marks on the wall show more than a foot of water intruded. On Thursday, restoration crews were pulling out all the doors and drywall.

Donelle said they will not rebuild on the property unless the County addresses the drainage issue.

“We can’t stay here,” she said. “We would never pass on this issue to somebody else.”

Casselman said the repairs done on the drainage canal that runs just south of this property from east to west brings flood water from the neighborhood and dumps it onto his front yard.

“They put a new culvert in. I think the intentions were for that to provide better flow but ultimately I think that also has sort of backfired,” he said. “What’s happening is the canal’s filling with sediment and nobody’s maintaining this canal. So, the bottom of the canal was rising, hence the water is rising and it’s just spreading out to its lowest resistance point.”

Casselman also believes there’s an engineering flaw.

“To see the sediment built up and the erosion and the after effect of the water, I can’t come to any other conclusion,” he said. “The fact that it’s able to rise so rapidly and to drain within 12 hours tells me that there’s a bottleneck somewhere and I think the bottleneck is right in my front yard.”

Hillsborough County spokesperson Megan Danner can’t yet confirm the agency built that culvert but said storm workers did some maintenance on a ditch about 300 feet away from the Casselman's home in June. Danner said on Friday, a worker went to the Casselman property and found a private pipe running to the ditch that may’ve contributed to the flooding. The County plans to investigate further and walk the property with the homeowner this week, according to Danner.

Casselman said he never laid down any drainage pipes.

“I just hope that the right people see this and somebody can appreciate what we’re going through, to understand we’ve done everything possible to protect our home,” Casselman said. “Whatever the powers that be can do to either re-engineer or resolve this, that’s ultimately what I’m looking for.”

The Casselman family said they’re thankful for the outpouring of support that they’re receiving from friends and family. A crowd funding website was set up on the website You Caring that has already raised $6,000 out of a $20,000 goal.

“We’re just so grateful. We know that people are much worse off than we are,” Donelle said. “We feel almost guilty, I’ll be honest with you, that we have so many people reaching out to us. I promise that we will give back anyway that we can because we are completely and utterly just humbled.”