- September 26, 2024
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Orange County Mayor Jerry L. Demings and members of the county government held a news conference to provide residents with an update on the county's preparation for the possible impact of Hurricane Helene on the area.
"I had the opportunity to get the latest update from the National Weather Service. They provided good news and bad news," Demings said. "The bad news is that we will definitely, as a community, be impacted by Hurricane Helene. The good news is that we will not be directly impacted, but we know that beginning sometime (Thursday), we will be experiencing tropical-force storm winds and rain that is going to necessitate all of us to adjust our daily lives."
It is expected that the Central Florida region will experience sustained winds of 25-30 miles per hour, with gusts reaching 45-55 mph, and one to four inches of rain beginning as early as noon and throughout Thursday, Sept. 26.
OCPS Chief Communications Officer Scott Howat announced during the press conference that all schools will be closed Thursday. After the school facilities are assessed, OCPS will make a decision on school closures on Friday, Sept. 27.
"We're making sure that our campuses are prepped for any impacts," Howat said. "We know it's going to be a large storm, and that wind gusts and sustained winds will exceed potentially 35 miles an hour. That is a time period when we would need to keep our busses off of the roadways and is the main reason why we are canceling school. ... as we monitor the storm we'll make a decision on Friday as to whether we'll be able to return to school. Right now, all after-school activities and extracurricular activities will be canceled ... and they will not resume until we make an announcement that will coincide with our Friday return to school announcement or not."
Duke Energy
A representative for Duke Energy, Lisa Curran, was present at the news conference and gave this message to its customers.
"Duke Energy stands prepared and ready to respond to the impacts of Hurricane Helene here in Orange County," Curran said. "We currently have 8,000 workers, either arriving by the end of today or already strategically in place across the state, enabling them to respond as quickly as possible to outages that we expect as a result of the strong winds and heavy rainfall. We are also sending in crews from our Midwest operations, from Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana — they include line technicians, vegetation management, damage assessors and support personnel. As soon as the conditions allow our dedicated team to be able to assess damage and start working, we'll get the power back on as safely as possible to our customers. We're asking our customers to take the time now to prepare. The best way to do that is to update your contact information at duke-energy.com and sign up for outage alerts at duke-energy.com/outagealerts. By signing up, we're able to provide you with immediate information regarding an outage impacting your area and updates on estimated time of restoration. The safety of our customers and our employees are of the utmost importance to us during this time, please prepare, sign up for outage alerts and please heed the information that the local officials are telling us here today. Thank you and stay safe."
OUC
Mayor Demings provided a message from OUC to its customers.
"(OUC is) encouraging its customers to visit ouc.com/stormcenter for important information, before, during and after the storm," Demings said. "They also ask that customers sign up for outage alerts ... by texting REG to 69682."
Reporting outages
The county is also reminding residents that whenever possible, please report outages to your service provider.
Orange county will be opening shelters at 7:30 a.m. Sept. 26 for individuals needing to evacuate or seek shelters from the hurricane. Identification is not required to enter the shelters and they are pet-friendly.
General Population Shelter
Shelters for Individuals with Special and Medical Needs
County residents who need to utilize one of the special and medical needs shelters please call 311 or (407) 836-3111. LYNX will provide free service to shelter locations. Visit ocfl.net/shelters for important information on what to bring with you to a shelter.
Orange County Utilities will not collect residential curbside garbage, yard waste, recycling, and large items Thursday, Sept. 26. The makeup day for customers will be Saturday, Sept. 28. For updated information and resources, visit ocfl.net/UtilitiesStormInfo.
