Deltona, Fla -- Deltona flood victims who were cited for stacking flood-damaged belongings in their yards, are now celebrating a victory.

They showed up at a city council meeting Wednesday night, and learned the violations were pardoned and even got an apology from their mayor.

Mayor Dennis Mulder said he didn’t even know about the problem until residents confronted him.

Monty Naffke said he started gutting his home immediately as Fay’s flood waters receded.

“If you leave this stuff in here, the mold takes over,” he said.

But he and his neighbors were shocked when the city of Deltona posted threatening nuisance abatement notices on their damaged homes.

The problem, according to code enforcers, is that residents put waterlogged furniture, carpet and drywall on their lawns. Code enforcers said the homeowners should have rented a dumpster first, which neighbors said would be a difficult task when streets were still flooded.

“We had two canoes and we were floating furniture out of here, around the back of the house, through the front door,” said Naffke. “They've got enough manpower to send someone around putting notices up in the midst of this. It's the last thing we need to worry about. “

Mayor Mulder decided the nuisance abatement warnings will be wiped out and the city will pick up the trash, but there are still more complaints to sort through.