BONITA SPRINGS, Fla. - This is not the first time Betty Thompson has been forced out of her home by floods. Her neighborhood off Bonita Beach Road and Imperial Boulevard flooded in 1995. She hoped it would never happen again. "Here we are, 13 years later, and it's flooded," she said.

Bonita Springs Mayor Ben Nelson says a number of projects to control flooding have been completed, but others have been blocked. "The Army Corp of Engineers and some of the environmental groups stopped it from happening," Nelson says.

Water management officials say I-75 blocks the natural flow of water toward the Gulf. As a result, the South Lee County Watershed Plan requires the Department of Transportation to install drains underneath the interstate. South Florida Water Management District officials say five additional drains are being installed near Corkscrew Road, north of the flooding off Bonita Beach Road. The goal is to remove some of the sheet flow before it moves further south and is forced into the Imperial River and surrounding neighborhoods.

A spokesperson for the South Florida Water Management District in Lee County says the system is designed only to drain during periods of heavy rain, as experienced from Tropical Storm Fay.

But people living in the Brooks community near the new drains oppose the plan.

"We do think it's wrong though if you take and help one community at the expense of another one and flood them and damage them," Nick Batos of the Brooks Concerned Citizens Organization, says.

"We all really feel sorry for all the people. What we all need to concentrate on is what can we do to prevent that from happening in the future," Bill Hillemeyer, another resident of the Brooks community, says.

Water management officials say the development was designed to handle the water flow, but residents say the data is based on a ten-year-old study. That's why they have asked for a new study to be done before the drains are used.

Water management officials say the new drains on I-75 are being built during the I-Rox construction, but they will remain closed until the study is completed in May.

Jennifer Hecker with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida says the drain plans should be reconsidered and water should be diverted into other waterways, like the Estero River and Spring Creek, in order to restore what she calls, a more natural flow.

She says sheet flow and drains have left the Imperial River and Halfway Creek above their historical levels, while the North Branch of the Estero River and Spring Creek levels are lower.

Hecker says the drain project, which became a hot topic last December, says even if all parties had reached an agreement earlier this year, the drains would not have been completed in time for the 2008 rainy season.

Mayor Nelson says with the current delays, the project may not be completed before the 2009 rainy season.

Meanwhile, people like Thompson will have to wait through yet another rainy season for something to be done.

"It's rough, obviously. you know, I'm out of my home, I can't get to my home, I've got to put my kids out, you know, staying at their house," she says.