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Orlo Vista project expected to finish by 2024

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Residents of Orlo Vista received an update on a flood mitigation project on Tuesday, with community leaders explaining how it’s coming along.

The Orange County neighborhood was the site of severe flooding during Hurricane Ian in 2022 — and Hurricane Irma in 2017.

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Orange County Commissioner Mike Scott said that even though the project won’t be finished until the summer of 2024, there are measures the county is taking to help with the 2023 hurricane season.

“We’re working on capacity as the long-term solution, but the immediate solution is we increased the capacity of pump stations,” Scott said. “We’ve set up earlier warnings, so whereas before it was a three-day warning, it’s now a five-day warning.”

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As part of the project, crews are increasing the capacity of retention ponds and making other upgrade to prevent future flooding.

Last week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed a $6 million request for a future Orlo Vista flood mitigation project that was set to begin in 2026.

Despite concerns that the veto would impact the current flood mitigation project, Scott ensured the public that the current project would not be impacted by the veto.

“We were hoping to fund (the 2026) project and use general revenue dollars or county dollars elsewhere. It’s not going to impact the (current) project in any way,” he said.

Orlo Vista resident Brian Harris said that the concerns over the funding veto were brought about by misinformation.

“The veto had nothing to do with the mitigation project...” Harris said. “They’re not taking any money from us. This money’s already been allocated.”

Harris added that he feels the project has been coming along nicely.

“They’re doing some really powerful work. It’s moving along very quickly, very steadily,” he said.

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Nearly nine months since Hurricane Ian hit Central Florida, one Orlo Vista woman is rebuilding her flooded-out home piece by piece.

Janét Buford-Johnson has owned her house for 20 years. It’s been with her family for 30 years. She said it was only the second time the house flooded with the first time being during Hurricane Irma in 2017.

"Irma was bad," Buford-Johnson said. "Ian was much worse because we lost everything."

Buford-Johnson and her 16-year-old daughter were forced out by floodwaters higher than three feet. Buford-Johnson said the water came in from both the front and back sides of the house. Ian left the mother and daughter "basically homeless."

They returned to live in the home in June after Buford-Johnson made basic repairs.

"The first thing when I get money, I’ll call a contractor," Buford-Johnson said. "‘All right give me an estimate.’ I’ll do whichever estimate that comes up where I can afford to do it."

Buford-Johnson said the home has sentimental value worth more than the cost of repairs which are estimated at nearly $140,000.

"The biggest fear is to be flooded out once again," Buford-Johnson said.

Orange County’s $25 million dredging project is expected to bring the area some flooding relief.

Crews are increasing the size of three neighboring retention ponds, and they’re installing new pipes that can pump more than 40,000 gallons of water a minute. Buford-Johnson said the county’s flood prevention plan is vital to the neighborhood going forward. She also said it comes after many of her neighbors already left the neighborhood after last fall’s flooding.

Brett Blackadar, Orange County Public Works deputy director, said finding sufficient funding was one of the main reasons construction only started this past March.

"I know it’s difficult for a lot of people to see that because they want instant action, but this process to accumulate $25 million for this project is difficult when we don’t have that kind of funding right in front of us at all times," Blackadar said.

The county estimates dredge work in the neighborhood is supposed to finish next July unless there are any major weather delays. Blackadar said the upgrades would have cut down the number of homes flooded from more than 100 to around a dozen.

"A majority of the homes that flooded under Ian under this scenario would not be flooded," Blackadar said. "There may be a few that could flood because Ian was more than a 100-year storm."

Blackadar said when construction is complete the homes that could flood with an Ian-like storm would see inches of water instead of the feet-high levels seen last fall.

Buford-Johnson said she can’t take any more flooding.

"We’re hoping and praying that nothing happens this season," Buford-Johnson said.

Buford-johnson has gotten some financial help from F.E.M.A. She expects a little more money through insurance her mortgage company had on the home but said neither source will be enough to cover all the repairs.

With the start of hurricane season in Florida on Thursday, people living in flood-prone areas of central Florida are concerned that they won’t be protected.

Many are victims of the flooding caused by Hurricane Ian in September.

The storm generated more than 700,000 property insurance claims.

In Orlo Vista, near Kirkman and Old Winter Garden Roads in Orange County, 148 homes were flooded last September.

The contents of some homes are strewn about the streets that were so flooded by three nearby retention ponds, boats were used to rescue residents.

It was five feet high in Calvin Williams’ house.

He told WESH 2 News, “All of that water came over here, everything.”

"You had no flood insurance?" WESH 2 asked.

"No, no," Williams said.

"What are you going to do?" WESH 2 asked.

"I'm going to take my time and to fix my house up pretty good," Williams said.

Williams will be working to restore his home without help from his wife, Herbert.

He says she became so stressed following their boat rescue, that weeks after Ian, she suffered a fatal heart attack.

During Ian, more than 10 inches of rain fell in little more than 24 hours.

The retention ponds, around since the 1950’s era homes were built, overflowed into the streets.

Now, construction on the ponds which began in March, and cost $23.4 million, is progressing.

When it’s done, the three retention ponds will be lowered by 12 feet.

That’ll increase capacity from 51 million gallons now to 141 million, almost triple, and a new pipe is being installed to enhance the pumping network.

It’s scheduled to be finished by June of next year.

Residents are probably wondering what happens this hurricane season if we get another catastrophic rain event.

Because the north and south ponds have been drained, they can handle rainfall while the work is ongoing.

While the project should help prevent future flooding, the county commissioner for this District says it’s long overdue.

"The county had failed the folks that live here," said Mike Scott, the Orange County commissioner.

Scott grew up in the county and says this kind of work to relieve Orlo Vista from flooding has been talked about for decades, and should have been greatly improved after Hurricane Irma in 2017.

With some people struggling to rebuild, and others who just want out of the neighborhood, Scott is pushing a plan to use money in the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Hazard Mitigation Grant Program to buy some homes in this and other flood-prone neighborhoods, including Bonnie Brook in the Oak Ridge neighborhood.

"I think the county owes them that and more. The first thing in making a mistake is accepting it and accepting responsibility, I think," Scott said. "And after that, figuring out what is the best path forward."

Scott expects a community meeting this summer, with the home purchase grant application deadline set for the end of August.

Top headlines:

ORLOVISTA, Fla. —

New legislation aims to make sure more people are prepared for when hurricanes hit.

Congressmen Maxwell Frost and Daniel Webster came together from each side of the aisle to propose a new bill they hope will save lives.

“People get really anxious,” said Deborah Ryan, an Orlo Vista resident whose mobile home was flooded during a hurricane.

Ryan says every rainfall keeps them on edge.

Related: WESH 2 Hurricane Survival Guide 2023

Residents said they’re hoping a new bipartisan bill will level the playing field when it comes to making sure everybody can be ready for the next storm.

“A lot of times, it’s English, press this [button], Spanish, press this [button], and that’s as far as it gets. People speak Haitian, Portuguese, Creole all that. A lot of times, that won’t work,” resident David Phillips said.

Related: How to make your family and home safe for hurricane season

“What people should know is the most people dying are seniors. The most folks who will die are people with disabilities,” Frost said.

The two congressmen said they want to look at ways to improve how non-English speakers, older and disabled residents receive emergency alerts during hurricanes.

“We want to study that. We want to have that data, so we as legislators can work to fix those gaps,” Frost said.

Related: WESH 2 2023 Hurricane Season Forecast

“As Floridians, we are not strangers to the terrible power and ravages of hurricanes and tropical storms, and we recognize the need for emergency relief when such tragedies occur,” said Rep. Daniel Webster. “In the wake of natural disasters, seniors, people with disabilities, and those in rural areas are often most vulnerable. The Fixing Gaps in Hurricane Preparedness Act will help federal agencies evaluate how these harder-to-reach populations receive emergency notifications and identify shortcomings to improve preparedness and assure that assistance will swiftly reach those at the time of need.”

Top headlines:

ORLOVISTA, Fla. —

Three years after Orange County leaders approved a plan to protect the Orlo Vista neighborhood from devastating floods, no construction work has actually started on the project. When Hurricane Ian hit in late September, the county had not even hired a company to do the work yet.

WESH 2 found the major reason for the delay appears to be the way Orange County chose to try to pay for the project.

In 2017, Hurricane Irma flooded 500 homes in Orlo Vista, and more than 200 people had to be rescued from the rising water. Orange County then began working on plans to prevent that type of flooding in the future.

Those plans focused on three retention ponds in the neighborhood nestled in the southeast corner of Kirkman Road and State Road 408. Orange County Public Works officials say the ponds are about four feet deep and can normally handle heavy rain, but not the levels which fell during the hurricane.

“If you look around at the pond system, there’s very little storage volume for flood protection,” said Mike Drozeck, Orange County’s stormwater engineer.

The solution was to deepen the ponds by 10 feet, adding more room to store rainwater. The county also planned to improve the pump system used to lower the ponds.

“The intake would be down at the bottom so you could draw down the entire 10 or 15 feet of water column, create that storage ahead of the hurricane, and then you’d still have the 40,000 gallon per minute pump,” Drozeck said.

County Commissioners voted to approve the $10-million project in 2019, but instead of using county taxpayer money, they planned to secure most of the funding for it from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But WESH 2 found documents showing repeated delays and extensions to the project. One memo from July extended the date to September 30, 2022, the day after Hurricane Ian hit. On the day the storm reached Orlando, no dirt had been dug out from Orlo Vista’s ponds and the same old pump system was in place.

Officials say much of the reason for the delays was waiting for FEMA and working through the agency’s procedures to secure the funding.

“It takes a little bit of time, and eats a little bit of time. But you have to go through and follow the rules and regulations,” Drozeck said. “Both the county requirements and federal requirements in order to do your projects correctly. So that kind of all added up to where we’re at.”

For instance, FEMA required an environmental assessment of the project, which was not finished until October 2021.

In early 2022, FEMA did approve $7.5-million for the Orlo Vista Project, and Orange County was able to get Florida’s Department of Economic Opportunity to cover the remaining $2.5 million of the $10 million cost.

But by then, five years after Hurricane Irma hit, the actual price tag had jumped significantly.

“We actually bid the project for construction in June. We got our bids in before the hurricane to proceed, and the bids came in more than double of what we had funded through those grants,” Drozeck said.

Records show two companies provided bids, one for $21 million and the other for $23 million.

That means Orange County had to go back to FEMA and request even more money. That request is still pending. While officials are confident, they don’t know how long it will take.

“We don’t know the outcome on that. They’re working on it diligently,” Drozeck said.

Orange County possibly could have avoided the delays if it had been able to pay for the project using local money. WESH 2 asked Mayor Jerry Demings if the county could cover the funding difference to speed up the process. He would not commit to using local money and would not agree to an interview on the subject.

Instead, Demings pointed WESH 2 to Public Works Director Joe Kunkel, who said the progress with FEMA has been promising. But if the agency does not agree to the funding, they’ll have to find a new path forward.

“The Board (of County Commissioners) will ultimately make that decision,” Kunkel said.

Officials also concede that, because of inflation, the price of the Orlo Vista project could continue to rise while they wait for the federal government’s response.