Eye on the Tropics

Hurricane Irma: Floodwaters begin to recede from Kissimmee mobile home park

KISSIMMEE — Floodwaters have started to recede Sunday from a 55 and older community in Kissimmee that had to be evacuated from this past week.

Hundreds of people were evacuated out of the Good Samaritan Society mobile home park since Tuesday when Shingle Creek reached historic water levels, flooding the community.

Annmarie Dobson-Szlezak and her husband, who live in the community, stopped by Saturday afternoon to check out the damage, but weren’t allowed to go beyond yellow tape set up for safety concerns.

Photos: Flooding from Irma in Kissimmmee 55+ community

"We're fortunate. My daughter and son-in-law are right across the street at the Oaks in a big house so we were well taken care of but, you know, we went over there thinking we were going to be there a day or two. That's about it, just during the hurricane,” said Dobson-Szlezak.

Instead, Dobson-Szlezak has had to extend her stay for nearly a week. When the couple evacuated, they took about a week’s worth of medication with them—but now that supply is running thin.

Read: 300 evacuated from Kissimmee community hit hard by Irma flooding

"We don't have our meds. We don't have anything,” she said.

A strong odor of sewage still emanates from the community.

Read: More than 80,000 without power a week after Irma, officials say

Marsh Road, which a few days ago was covered in several inches of water, is now passable.

Watch: Aerial view of flooding in Good Samaritan Society

"The water being so high it certainly had to affect the recycling plant. We get Kissimmee water but we do our own recycling."

Some of the residents of the community have been able to return to their homes—but only those whose residences weren’t affected by the floodwaters.

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