Three and a half years ago, we bought a beautiful two acre home in Brooksville. Shortly after that, the property owner two places south of us decided to take out 40+ acres of longstanding pines, plowing and turning the land after logging to expand his tree farm. These changes to the land affected the natural flow of water and it wasn't long before we were flooded. We built up berms around our home and thought we'd be fine - until July 6th when hurricane Elsa blew through. The water rolled off the tree farm, across Parsons Road, through the neighbor's pasture, and put 65% of our property under water.

We've had no well (no fresh water) since the 8th. We cannot cook, clean, bathe, or flush because we have no water. Our air conditioner is in water, the ducts under the house are filled with water, and so, we have no a/c.

The property owners who caused this have refused to correct the problem and have stated there's nothing they can do. The county engineers and commissioners refuse to help, telling us today it's a civil matter and to hire a lawyer. SWFWMD hasn't helped, saying they have to do this "study" and that "study". Both the county and SWFWMD say we can't pump to save our property because we'd be putting water on someone else's property.... isn't that what has happened to us!?!?!

We've appealed to news and newspaper agencies with no response. It's as if no one who can help cares that our home is being destroyed!

A neighbor helped us move dirt from our yard around the house and we pumped all the water that we could from under the house and around the air conditioner. Then a huge thunderstorm came in today and all the rain poured off the house right back into where we had just pumped it out.

The expenses thus far to rent pumps and equipment to move dirt, the added expense of not being able to cook, driving back of forth to my mother's to shower and sleep comfortably, and care for our pets has depleted our funds. We have no idea what this mess is going to cost us. We can't repair the well until the water has gone or we will have to put in a new well. The ductwork under the house has to be replaced and hopefully the a/c unit will still work. We have to put gutters on the house and spouts out past the berms to prevent the flooding at the base of the house like what happened today.

I've also lost several chickens, a coop, and a cat - hopefully she is hold up at a neighbor's because of the flooding and not dead.

I'm a teacher. My husband has a home-based shop and has been unable to work with the flooding and no water.

Some of our friends have asked how they can help, what they can do, and offered to help financially so that we can bring in enough dirt to build up again around our house and grade it out so no water can get under or near the house again. We've been given a price of $200 per truck load of dirt to haul in. Will be needing 20 to 25 truckloads of dirt in order to do what needs to be done to protect our home. If you feel that you would like to help in any way it will be greatly appreciated. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.