Callaway Residents Help Each Other Stay Above Water

Bill the cat was the first in his house to know the trouble Hurricane Frances had left behind for the Callaway subdivision. Rick Schultz’s cat awakened him early Tuesday morning, and the aviation liaison engineer looked out his back window to see the 4-acre retention pond, which takes in water from several other subdivisions bleeding dangerously close to his house.
“It did not take three hours for it to flood, once the water breached the retention ponds upstream,” Schultz said. “And the water just kept rising and rising.”
On the other side of the pond, at about 6:30 that morning, Mark and Donna Ellis’ 11-year-old daughter Karyn awakened on an already wet floor. By then, the carpet was already saturated, and the ceramic tile had accumulated 2 inches of water.
“You’re just numb at that point,” Ellis said. “You don’t think about anything, but how to get to safety. This is all so overwhelming.”
They monitored the retention pond before going to bed and thought they would be safe. By the time the family left in their Blazer with whatever belongings they could carry Tuesday morning, the water in their yard was “high-calf high,” Ellis said. Their house was the first to go, but by Tuesday another home was flooded, with two others – Schultz’s and Tom Ottum’s houses – in jeopardy.
None of the families have flood insurance. They say they didn’t think insurance was necessary since they were told the subdivision wasn’t in the 100-year flood plain.
“We were led to believe that this was a no-flood zone,” said Ellis, who moved here from Ohio about a year ago. “The neighbors said the area has been predisposed to flooding, but that wasn’t what we were told when we moved in. We just want answers and some accountability.”
Residents say the flooding happens because water from other areas, including the Kirby Road and Emerald Lake subdivisions, drains into the Callaway retention pond.
“All of that water comes down here,” said Ottum, a resident since April.
The Suwannee River Water Management District shut off a couple of retention ponds that were draining into Callaway. On Thursday, the county was pumping water from the pond to a county retention pond.
While sandbags and a couple of sunny days helped the waters subside somewhat, the water was still precariously close to the homes, and thoughts were already turning to another potentially devastating strike by an even more powerful hurricane.
“Yesterday, it was still rising,” Ottum said. “Today, it went down 1 inch. We figure we have between 4 and 6 million gallons of water in that retention pond. They’re pumping 750 gallons a minute. There ain’t enough time before Ivan gets here to drain it down. So that’s not the answer.”
An answer may come soon. County commissioner George Skinner, who was in the subdivision Thursday handing out bottled water and military meals ready-to-eat with the American Red Cross, said the landowner gave his permission for a berm to be installed at the pond. The berm, a narrow ledge at the top of a slope, would act as somewhat of a dam and channel water away from the subdivision.
County manager Dale Williams expects the county to give its consent for Kirby Road to be used for the installation, but said the time frame is out of the county’s control.
The residents all say they believed they were moving into an area that was not prone to flooding. Schultz, however, said the pond has flooded in each of the four years he’s lived in the subdivision, and he has photographs from each year since 2001.
“But it maybe covered the road for a couple of inches, now we’re talking 18 inches to 2 feet out there,” he said. “I had great fear Tuesday night that I was going to be flooded out. Right now, I’m a little more comfortable, but if Ivan comes back, we’re going to lose it. This house is my retirement, and without flood insurance, I would lose everything that I’ve worked for in my entire life.”
In his four years in Callaway, Schultz said he has talked with the developer, who has taken a number of steps to alleviate the problem, such as the retention pond itself. He is not interested in pointing fingers or blaming anyone. He just wants action to help him and his neighbors save their homes and get their lives back.
“First, we have a temporary problem we need to alleviate before Ivan,” he said. “Let’s get the houses that are in peril out of peril, so these people can start to resume a normal life.
“The second thing is to look at doing something right now so no more water can come in here. This retention pond is adequate to hold the water of this subdivision. It is not adequate to hold the water of Emerald Forest, I-75, Kirby Road and all the other subdivisions.”
Another concern is people who bring 3-wheelers to the high-water retention pond. Two were chased away Thursday by law enforcement with a warning of charges if they were caught in the area again.
“We just ask people to be respectful in our neighborhood,” said resident Linda Northup.
The residents have pulled together in a variety of ways to help each other through the crisis. People with power and portable generators help those without it. They bring each other water. When the water threatened to seep into the Schultz house Tuesday, they helped plant sandbags to help save it.
“They were like ants,” Schultz said of the help that came when the flooding endangered his house. “People kept coming to get sandbags to help us out.”
Neighbors are also giving each other moral support, especially when the conversation turns from Frances to Ivan, as it did quite a few times Thursday.
“We’re already under water,” Ellis said. “But what’s going to happen to these other people? This water is not moving away. We’re already drenched, but the water is on their doorsteps.”