Scott Powers
At least three people in Orange County died while preparing for potential impact from Hurricane Dorian and their deaths are officially being attributed as storm-related under federal guidelines.
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings announced Wednesday morning that Dr. Joshua D. Stephany, Medical Examiner for Florida’s 9th District serving Orange and Osceola counties, has ruled two deaths as attributable to Dorian, based on U.S. Centers for Disease Control guidelines. Later, Orange County officials confirmed a third death now has been attributed to the storm. Officials had few details available for the media Wednesday.
One death came Monday of a 57-year-old man who had evacuated from the coast to Orlando and was staying at a Walt Disney World hotel.
Another, also on Monday, was of a 62-year old man in western Orange County who was found dead after doing yard work.
A third was another person who died in Ocoee after apparently trimming a tree and falling from a ladder. No other details, including gender, were immediately available.
Demings announced the casualties as he declared that otherwise the county “dodged a bullet” when Dorian changed course over the weekend and largely spared Florida, including Central Florida. Dorian’s impact on Orange County was ending around the same time as his 11:30 a.m. press conference, his sixth and final on the storm.
“At this point we all can breath a sigh of relief,” Demings said.
He and other Orange County emergency management officials, including those from electric utilities, reported that the county had scattered power outages at various points from Tuesday night through Wednesday morning but line workers were able to get power restored quickly in almost every case. As of 11 a.m. still about 300 of Duke Energy’s 400,000 customers in Orange County still were without power. Traffic lights were out briefly in two areas of the county, near the University of Central Florida on the east side, and along Hiawassee Road on the west side.
There were no reports of significant flooding, including in areas where the county had experienced major flooding in past storms, notably the Orla Vista community in western Orange County. Demings attributed that to efforts to reduce retention pond levels in that area in advance, which he said worked.
Full county services will reopen Thursday. Trash collection is being rescheduled through Sunday to make up for days missed earlier this week, and will resume normal collection days next Monday. The landfill will continue to receive yard waste with no fees through Wednesday.
All Orange County schools reopen Thursday.
The region’s bus service, LYNX, never suspended any operations and will continue on its full schedule. The agency’s disabilities transportation service, Access LYNX, was limited this week to life-sustaining transportation only and that will continue through Wednesday. Full service begins again on Thursday.
Demings cautioned that while Dorian is gone, hurricane season is not.
“If you have any leftover hurricane supplies what we are suggesting is you hold on to them, because we still have nearly eight weeks to go in this hurricane seasoon,” he said.
