Longwood school's athletic field flooded again despite fix last year

LONGWOOD, Fla. — Hundreds of students at a Longwood school couldn’t go onto their athletic field last year because it was flooded from Grace Lake overflowing.

The same problem is happening again a year later, except this time the overflow is also affecting nearby yards.

The county said Hurricane Matthew is to blame, even though the county installed a pump last year to help the water recede faster.

Ron Johnson, the pastor of One Church, which operates One School of the Arts, said not being able to use the field has been a letdown for students.

“It has been highly detrimental to both school activities and church activities,” he said.

A Seminole County engineer said the flooding this year has seeped into the backyards of nearby homes.

A resident showed Channel 9 cellphone video he took showing the water from his backyard making its way into a drain near the front of his home.

A county engineer said rainfall from Hurricane Matthew caused Grace Lake to overflow.

The engineer said that extra water goes underneath Interstate 4 and is supposed to stay in a ditch and flow into a different lake.

The engineer doesn’t know how long it will take for the water to recede but said crews will look at the ditch to see what they can do to avoid 300 students losing their field for weeks at a time.

There was six to eight inches of rainfall during the storm.

Cox Media Group