Flooding does not necessarily mean an HOA’s drainage system has failed. The more important questions are whether the system is properly maintained, operating according to its permitted design, and able to discharge into downstream canals or other receiving systems that still have capacity.
Key Takeaways:
As I write this, the roads in my neighborhood are flooded. Without a large truck, no one is going anywhere. It has been reported that some areas received extraordinary amounts of rain in only a matter of hours. As far as I know, none of my neighbors’ homes flooded, although I would not be surprised to learn that a few garages took on water.
The finger-pointing and accusations have already started.
Without even a basic understanding of what just happened, some residents are threatening to sue their association and management company. The frustration is understandable. When your street looks like a river and water is approaching your home, you want an explanation. You want someone to fix it. And, perhaps most naturally, you want someone to blame.
But sometimes the culprit is not the association, the property manager, a clogged drain, or a broken pump.
Sometimes there is simply too much water and nowhere for it to go.
The torrential rains that fell over the last several days wreaked havoc across large portions of Florida. Community after community experienced flooded roads, overwhelmed drainage systems and, in some unfortunate instances, water intrusion into homes.
What many Floridians do not realize is that water standing temporarily in streets, swales, lakes and other designated areas does not necessarily mean the drainage system has failed. Those areas are often components of the storm-water-management system itself.
So, before blaming your community association because the street in front of your house looks more suitable for a kayak than a car, it helps to understand where all that water is supposed to go.
When an extraordinary amount of rain falls in a very short period, the problem is not simply getting water into a storm drain. The problem is what happens to the water after it gets there. That distinction is critical.
Florida's drainage infrastructure is better understood as a series of interconnected systems. Rain falls on homes, roofs, driveways, sidewalks, parking lots and streets. Some of it soaks into the ground. The remainder becomes storm-water runoff and must be collected, stored, absorbed or conveyed elsewhere.
The Southwest Florida Water Management District explains that storm-water systems are specifically designed to collect and manage that runoff. Depending upon the system, water may enter retention areas, detention ponds, swales, catch basins, underground pipes or other drainage facilities. Retention systems allow water to infiltrate into the ground, while detention systems temporarily store water and release it gradually through an outflow structure.
In other words, that lake behind your house may not be there merely because somebody thought waterfront lots would sell for more money. It may be an important piece of your community’s storm-water infrastructure. Your community’s system is only one piece of a much bigger puzzle.
In South Florida, for example, the South Florida Water Management District (the “District”) describes the regional flood-control system as a primary network of canals and natural waterways connected to community drainage districts and hundreds of smaller neighborhood systems. Accordingly, flood control is a shared responsibility involving the District, counties, municipalities, local drainage districts, homeowners’ associations and residents.
That means the storm drain in front of your house is not necessarily the end of the drainage system. It is closer to the beginning.
Think about what happens after rainwater enters the drain on your street. Water collected within a community may move through catch basins, pipes, swales, ponds, lakes and control structures. Depending on the particular system, and its permits, some water may infiltrate into the ground, some may be temporarily stored, and some may ultimately discharge downstream.
Each component has a job. But each component also has a limit. A detention pond, for example, is not intended to empty instantaneously. The Southwest Florida Water Management District explains that, after a storm, water in a detention pond slowly drains through the pipe in its outflow structure.
There is good reason for that controlled release. Imagine what would happen if every subdivision, shopping center and development could immediately dump all of its storm-water downstream at the same time. The downstream system would have to receive all of it at once.
So, storm-water management is not simply about moving water away from your property as quickly as humanly possible. It is also about storing water, controlling its release, allowing infiltration where appropriate, and managing the rate at which runoff enters downstream systems.
Think about draining a swimming pool. If your swimming pool has one outfall pipe, emptying the pool may take a considerable amount of time. Add several identical pipes with somewhere for the water to go and, naturally, the pool can drain considerably faster.
But now imagine that every home in your neighborhood begins draining its swimming pool at exactly the same time. Then, imagine every community surrounding your community does the same thing. Then, imagine that the canal, lake, reservoir or other receiving system into which all those pipes ultimately discharge is already full. It no longer matters very much how large your individual drainpipe is. The water has nowhere to go.
That is essentially the problem drainage systems confront during extreme rainfall events. Your neighborhood may be capable of moving water perfectly well under ordinary circumstances. Its storm drains may be clear. Its pipes may be unobstructed. Its lakes may be properly maintained, and its control structures may operate exactly as designed.
But, your system still depends upon conditions beyond the boundary of your community. If the downstream receiving system is already carrying tremendous volumes of water, your community cannot simply command its water to disappear.
This is the question that inevitably comes next.
“If the lake is too high, why doesn't the Association just pump it down?” Pump it where? That is the question. Moving water from Point A accomplishes very little if Point B is already overwhelmed.
If every community responded to a regional flood by indiscriminately pumping its water into the downstream system as quickly as possible, it could simply transfer the problem from one property to another. In addition, storm-water facilities operate under permits and engineered designs governing how water is collected, detained and discharged. The answer ordinarily is not for a homeowners' association to unilaterally redesign or operate its storm-water system in whatever manner produces the fastest removal of water.
The objective is to manage the water through the system for which the community was designed and permitted.
Here is where Florida’s geography and development become particularly important. As land is developed, natural surfaces are replaced by roofs, roads, sidewalks, driveways and parking lots. Those surfaces do not absorb rainfall the way undeveloped land does.
The South Florida Water Management District explains that urbanization disturbs natural water flow because impervious surfaces reduce the amount of rain that infiltrates into the ground. The resulting increase in runoff volume can overload drainage systems.
That is the heart of the issue. A drainage system has finite storage and conveyance capacity. The community lake has finite storage. The pipes have finite capacity. The control structure has finite discharge capacity. The downstream canal has finite capacity. Wherever the water ultimately goes has physical limits as well.
Extreme rainfall can therefore produce a cascading problem. Water is arriving faster than portions of the drainage network can store, infiltrate or convey it. Once downstream water levels rise sufficiently, drainage upstream necessarily becomes more difficult.
Picture a line of funnels emptying into one another. Everything works beautifully while the bottom funnel can discharge water faster than the funnels above are supplying it. But once the bottom fills, water begins backing up through the system. Making the first funnel bigger does not solve the problem. The bottleneck is downstream.
That concept helps explain one of the most frustrating observations after an extreme storm: the rain may have stopped, but the street is still flooded.
If there is insufficient downstream capacity, drainage takes time. Water has to move through the interconnected system, water levels must fall, ponds and canals must recover storage capacity, and saturated ground may have to absorb or release water.
Because, in many storm-water designs, temporary flooding of lower-lying areas can provide storage before water reaches buildings. That may sound crazy to the person looking outside and seeing two feet of water where yesterday there was asphalt, but consider the alternative.
When an extreme storm produces more water than can immediately leave a community, the water has to occupy some space. Between temporarily occupying a street and entering someone’s living room, which would you prefer?
The fact that streets or other low areas are holding water while homes remain dry may tell a very different story from the one the residents initially assume. It does not automatically prove that the drainage system failed.
Depending upon the property’s approved storm-water design, temporary storage may be part of how the system protects buildings during unusually severe rainfall.
That said, prolonged or recurring flooding should never simply be dismissed as “normal.” It may warrant review by the appropriate engineer to determine whether drains are obstructed, pipes have failed, elevations or grading have changed, ponds have lost storage capacity, control structures are operating properly, or the system is otherwise functioning according to its permitted design. Maintenance matters.
The Southwest Florida Water Management District recommends routine inspection and maintenance of storm-water infrastructure, including inspection of outfall structures, discharge pipes, inlets, outlets and catch basins, particularly following major storms.
But there is an enormous difference between a drainage system that floods because it has not been properly maintained and a properly functioning drainage system that is temporarily overwhelmed by an extraordinary volume of water. Those two situations should not be confused.
Remember, much of Florida was historically wetlands, marshes and other low-lying land, and living here means accepting that water will always be part of the equation. If you own property in Florida and choose to go without flood insurance, you may as well take a trip to Las Vegas, put your money on the table and roll the dice. Do not make the mistake of believing that, because your home is outside a designated high-risk flood zone, you are somehow safe from flooding. FEMA’s current data shows that nearly one-third of National Flood Insurance Program claims from 2014 through 2024 came from outside high-risk flood areas. Most homeowners’ insurance policies do not cover flood damage. That makes understanding your association’s insurance coverage especially important. Campbell’s Community Association Insurance Programs webinar reviews key coverage considerations for Florida associations.
In Florida, particularly after watching fifteen inches of rain fall in a matter of hours, gambling that the water will stop at the flood-zone line may be one bet you simply cannot afford to lose.
With all of the above in mind, before you go pointing fingers at your board of directors, consider pointing them at your legislators instead. If your community experienced flooding and has additional concerns, please be sure to contact your association’s legal counsel.
Campbell Property Management regularly hosts educational webinars related to storm preparedness, drainage maintenance, flood risk, insurance, community infrastructure, and other issues affecting Florida condominium and HOA communities. Visit CampbellEvents.org to explore upcoming webinars and educational opportunities for board members, property managers, and community association professionals.
Jeffrey Rembaum, Esq. is a Board-Certified Specialist in Condominium and Planned Development Law and a Florida Supreme Court circuit civil mediator with the law firm Kaye Bender Rembaum, in its Palm Beach Gardens’ office. His law practice consists of representing condominium, homeowners, and cooperative associations, and developers throughout Florida. He can be reached by email at JRembaum@KBRLegal.com or by calling 561-241-4462.