ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – The official start of hurricane season is less than one week away, and leaders in Orange County say a project designed to prevent flooding in Orlo Vista is facing a delay.
Work began on a drainage project in March of 2023, but because of supply chain issues, the county says a new pump station won’t be complete until the spring of 2025.
Many families in the West Orange County neighborhood experienced flooding after Hurricane Irma in 2017. The excessive rainfall in a short period of time during Hurricane Ian in 2022 also led to flooding. Some homes had water several feet of water inside them after the ponds in the area overflowed.
Although the new pump station won’t be finished in time for this hurricane season, the county says major progress has been made and there is a plan in place to protect homes this year.
“What we cannot do is we cannot undo what happened in Hurricane Ian. That was a tragedy. That much water had not occurred in Orange County in 100 years,” said Orange County Public Safety Director Danny Banks. “What’s remarkable is the fact that the county took that experience, learned from it, and then did exactly what is there.”
Banks says the amount of work the county has accomplished in the last year is “remarkable.”
They have been removing debris from the ponds in the Orlo Vista area to add an additional 10 feet of vertical storage. So far, they have excavated over 464,000 cubic yards of material.
“This is the equivalent to over 24,000 dump trucks,” said Mike Drozeck with the Stormwater Management Division.
This summer the ponds will be maintained at a lower elevation, which will lessen the flood threat. Before a storm hits, the county will take additional action to prepare.
“When a hurricane or a storm is forecasted, several days out we’ll have two 12-inch portable pumps that will drain the pond to their bottom elevation in advance of the storm, and will create a maximum of 10 to 12 feet of that vertical storage,” said Drozeck.
Stormwater Management Division Director Mike Drozeck says backup pumps will also be available.
“Now, when the water levels in the ponds fill up and reach the current pump turn-on elevations, our two existing 20,000 GPM pumps will turn on and will discharge 40,000 GPM of water and provide that additional flood protection to the community,” said Drozeck.
The increased capacity is more than double what it was, according to the county. When the project is 100% complete, they anticipate the improvements will protect against a 100-year storm event, 14 inches in 72 hours. This year, the ponds will have the capacity to handle 10.6 inches of rain in 24 hours.
“The volume there that it will hold right now would have substantially helped what occurred in the Orlo Vista area and the flooding,” said Banks.
The county says what happened during Hurricane Ian was a lesson, and they are listening.
“No one could have ever anticipated the level of rain that we received,” said Banks. “Our failure would be if we didn’t learn from it, because now we know that can occur. So, everything we’ve done, not just in Orlo Vista but in Rio Penar Lakes, Buck Road area, Bonnie Brook area, we now know that there’s potential because we know nature could give us that. We’ve evaluated all of our stormwater management systems, pumps, all the things that make that water flow from neighborhoods or occupied areas down to where the water sheds off.”
Banks says he is confident the county is prepared.
“We know that hurricane season starts just next week. We also know that typically the hurricanes don’t start hitting us until late in the summer,” said Banks. “We’re going to be prepared if a hurricane hits us June 1. We’re prepared today if a hurricane hits us.”
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