3 days ago
Hurricane season 2025: Central Florida prepares for flooding
When Hurricane Irma barreled through Central Florida in 2017, floodwaters rose several feet in the streets of the working-class neighborhood of Orlo Vista and up to the window sills in Levi Williams' home.
'We could see fish and tadpoles swimming in the water,' she said Thursday. It was weeks before she could finally return to the home where she had lived since 1975. It was the first time her house flooded.
Williams was chased out of her home again by flooding in September 2022 when Hurricane Ian swamped Central Florida, dumping nearly 15 inches in some spots.
She remembered sheets of water flowing along the streets of Orlo Vista, destroying nearly everything in its path, before spreading into homes. Some residents had to be rescued out of their houses by the National Guard with high-water vehicles.
Williams will often tell her stories of those two storms to warn Central Florida residents — even those who have lived in the region for decades — that a hurricane's rains are just as dangerous as its winds.
'We have no control over the weather. That's God's doing,' she said. 'But we can be prepared.'
That's the message that national weather forecasters, emergency management directors and public officials also are spreading as this year's Atlantic hurricane season starts today and continues through Nov. 30.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts another 'above average' hurricane season with between 13 and 19 named storms.
Central Florida residents, they warn, should be ready for heavy rains that can destroy homes within hours, even if their area is not in the direct path of a large storm.
'We're not on the coast, so people say: 'Oh gosh, we don't have to worry about hurricanes so much,'' said U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, former governor of Florida, on Thursday during a press briefing in Sanford regarding hurricane preparedness.
'But if you really look at these hurricanes, what's happened is: They've really become big water events,' Scott said, as he gathered with public safety officials. 'We've had unbelievable flooding where people thought we've never had flooding before.'
Scott and other emergency officials at the event urged homeowners purchase flood insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program, even if their properties are not in a designated flood zone.
Marie Lackey, a program manager for Seminole County's public works department, said Central Florida has experienced what scientists and weather experts refer to as a '100-year flood event' four times since 2017. A 100-year flood event means it's so rare that it has only a 1% chance of occurring within a specific year.
'Our systems are not designed for that amount of rainfall,' she said. 'And that is a concern, not just in our county, but in our surrounding counties.'
Jean Brower and her husband, James, learned that first hand. They were forced to live in a hotel for more than two weeks after Hurricane Ian dumped 19 inches of rain in some spots of Osceola County and flooded the couple's mobile home park, Good Samaritan Society's Kissimmee Village. More than a dozen units were later demolished.
County crews have since dredged nearby canals with hopes of preventing a similar disaster.
'We're a little more nervous this year,' said Brower, who blames the stress from the hurricane for a stroke she suffered that left her wheelchair-bound in January 2023.
'We know that they're predicting another busy hurricane season,' she said. 'But it's coming up too soon. We'll keep our fingers crossed.'
In Osceola, officials plan to soon implement FloodWise, a software technology that can predict where flooding will occur at the street level up to three days in advance of an approaching storm.
'It will alert us where to put pumps and sandbags,' said Linette Matheny, Osceola's executive director of environment and public lands. 'We can tell people in an apartment complex to move their cars or property out of the way.'
Trying to estimate how much rain will fall in a particular area during an approaching storm can drive weather forecasters and emergency management officials to frustration.
Devastating floods can occur far from a hurricane's eye. A storm's outer bands of rain can cause local deluges, so residents should be prepared even in areas that are outside a storm's forecasted track.
When Hurricane Milton cut a path across south Osceola last October, Kissimmee received slightly under 4 inches of rain, according to the National Weather Service. But Sanford, more than 35 miles north from the eye, saw more than 11 inches of rain.
Olivier Welscher — who runs Meriwether Farms next to the historic Midway community near Sanford — said he's uneasy about this year's hurricane season after his property off Celery Avenue flooded during Ian in September 2022.
'Ian was just a crazy storm,' Welscher said. 'We have never been flooded that bad. … And that was followed by [Tropical Storm] Nicole' in November 2022.
Midway residents have long struggled with flooded roads and inundated yards after strong storms because of an aging stormwater infrastructure. Many Midway homes were built more than half a century ago.
The flooding has become worse in recent years, residents say, because of stronger storms and hundreds of new homes built around their community in Sanford. The city's stormwater drains and ditches are often clogged with tree limbs and other vegetative debris, according to residents.
'It has been woefully neglected,' said Emory Green Jr., a longtime Midway resident, said. 'This is a priority that needs to be addressed. … And it makes me 100% nervous.'
In Altamonte Springs, residents in the Spring Oaks neighborhood, tucked along a crook of the Little Wekiva River, have had to use canoes and kayaks to leave their homes after hurricanes Irma, Ian and Milton flooded their roads. More than 60 residents were evacuated after Irma.
Spring Oaks resident Alan Wyland has already started stockpiling sandbags and other items in preparation for this year's hurricane season.
'We've learned to be ready,' he said this week.
In south Orange County, Jimmy Tadlock remembered a wave of stormwater flowing into his home during Ian in the Bonnie Brook neighborhood.
'It ruined everything — furniture, appliances, even the vehicle,' he said. 'The lift stations just couldn't handle it.'
Those memories make Tadlock nervous about this year's hurricane season, too.
'It's just been getting worse every year,' he said. 'The weather is bad everywhere, not just here. You're seeing heavy rains, winds, tornadoes; everywhere around the country.'
In Orlo Vista, Williams hopes Orange County's recent improvements to the stormwater drainage systems will help spare her neighborhood from flooding this year.
In November 2022, two months after Ian, Orange County hired a North Carolina company to a $21.5-million contract to deepen three storm-water ponds and install a new pump station and stormwater conduits.
'The ponds have been dug deeper, and they can now hold a lot more water than in the past,' said Jeff Charles, operations supervisor with Orange's stormwater management division.
Charles pointed out no Orlo Vista properties were flooded during last October's Hurricane Milton, even after receiving nearly six inches of rain.
'But they should've taken more active measures earlier,' Williams said, remembering her flood-damaged home from hurricanes Irma and Ian.
