Scott Powers
Cautioning that “we’ve been through this before” — a reference to the dark period during and following 2004’s Hurricane Charley — Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs advised Central Florida residents Wednesday to prepare for major Hurricane Matthew damage and the prospect of several days with limited services, including power, afterwards.
Jacobs was joined by U.S. Rep. John Mica of Winter Park and several other top county officials including Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings, who assured people any areas requiring evacuation will receive additional patrols to keep the neighborhoods secure.
“Our shared goal … is to make sure that we are ready for whatever happens and to make sure we’re doing our best to make sure our citizens are fully prepared,” Jacobs said.
“We’ve been through this before, 12 years ago; we saw when the unpredictable happened. And I think we were all surprised by the amount of damage that it brought,” Jacobs added. “I certainly anticipate that. I don’t hope that is the case. But we have to be prepared and our citizens have to take this seriously.”
The distribution in four hours Wednesday of more than 11,000 sandbags encouraged Jacobs that Orange County residents are taking the storm’s threat seriously.
Area schools and technical colleges are closed Thursday and Friday. Tolls have been waived on State Route 528 [the BeachLine Expressway.] The county is reaching out to residents of trailer parks and other highly vulnerable people to make sure they are prepared, Jacobs said. Shelters will open by 3 p.m. Thursday, including pet-friendly shelters, though Jacobs and the other officials said the locations will not be announced until Thursday.
She said she will decide tomorrow whether Orange County government will close Thursday and Friday. Lynx will consider reducing routes, while recognizing the importance of offering bus transportation.
She urged residents to prepare to shelter at home for three days with drinking water, flashlights, batteries, and canned goods. And she urged people to pick up anything freestanding outside so it “doesn’t become an object of destruction for you or your neighbors.”
There was a political wrinkle. Last month, Mica chaired a meeting of the House Government Oversight Committee expressly to take the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency to task for its response in August to massive storms and flooding in Louisiana. Mica visited flooded areas and was upset some services simply weren’t available for several days. Mica said he received reassurances from FEMA Tuesday that would not happen with Hurricane Matthew response.
“That’s why yesterday I contacted them to make sure the mistakes they made in Louisiana don’t happen here,” Mica said after speaking at Jacobs’ press conference. “We talked about water distribution, making certain that’s in place. The storage facilities we checked yesterday, and the distribution points. And then the emergency operations centers, deploying them to the areas that are hardest hit.”
