The thing about 100-year floods is that they are supposed to be rare. If it happens every summer, it is not a 100-year flood. It is just a heavy rainstorm.

We expect heavy rainstorms. This is Florida. Historically, the rain would wind up in lakes and ponds, from whence some would seep into the ground.

That changed with the Army Corps of Engineers. Their mission was to drain the swamps. The goal was that those messy lakes

and ponds would drain down ditches and canals to the rivers and oceans.

That was regrettable. Those lakes and ponds provided thermal inertia, easing the summers and buffering the winters. In fact, people used to grow fruit almost up to Jacksonville. There remains an area up there called Mandarin, and across the river is Orange Park.

Now, it is far too cold to grow things. Those lakes and ponds are gone. Instead, there are houses, stores, shopping centers, roads and parking lots. That leaves essentially nowhere for the water to go.

We have the same problem here in Volusia. As the county and cities approve more development, more of the land is covered with buildings and paved. Water does not percolate through roads and parking lots.

Instead, water just kind of piles up, and then it goes looking for low areas. If your house is in what the water sees as a low area, you may discover dampness. Everything turns wet and soggy.

This should be no surprise if your land is in a plat called Deltona Lakes. However, if yours is amusingly called Whatever Heights, or Clearcut Center or Bulldozer Highlands, then you could have gotten the wrong idea.

It may not have been your idea. If some developer grabs a chunk of land near you, he will promise to retain the water from a 100-year flood. Just so you know, he is not being forthright; next summer’s rain will flood your yard.

You may have figured that out. You likely saw what happened the past 10 times the neighbors were ignored and an unwelcome development project was approved. You are prone to pay attention.

That is what makes you different from the politicians. For them, developers and donors have better ideas. Elected officials are told what they should be thinking — see no evil, hear no evil, and approve that new PUD.

— Andrews is a DeLand-area attorney and a longtime government critic. For purposes of the column, he finds it convenient that there is so much government to criticize.