{"id":1603,"date":"2026-05-24T11:03:05","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T11:03:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=1603"},"modified":"2026-05-24T11:03:05","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T11:03:05","slug":"hurricane-season-2026-tropical-rainfall-brings-flooding-pain-to-central-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=1603","title":{"rendered":"Hurricane season 2026: Tropical rainfall brings flooding pain to Central Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Hurricane Ian turned Orlo Vista into a lake.<\/p>\n

When the storm stalled over Central Florida in September 2022, it dropped historic rainfall across Orange County, overwhelming canals, retention ponds and stormwater systems designed decades earlier. Entire streets in the west Orange County community disappeared underwater as residents scrambled to escape rising floodwaters in the middle of the night.<\/p>\n

Read more Hurricane season 2026: What is the Saffir-Simpson intensity scale?<\/a><\/p>\n

County officials later classified Ian as a near \u201c500-year storm,\u201d with some areas receiving between 14 and 20 inches of rain in a matter of hours.<\/p>\n

For Orlo Vista residents, the disaster unfolded with terrifying speed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like, \u2018OK, this is bad\u2019,\u201d said resident Janae Buford-Johnson, who has lived in the community since 1989.<\/p>\n

She said she experienced flooding before during Hurricane Charley in 2004, when streets filled with water and residents were temporarily displaced. But Ian was unlike anything she had seen.<\/p>\n

As rain bands continued moving across Central Florida, water systems in Orlo Vista began backing up from the ground level. Buford-Johnson said she first noticed something was wrong when her toilet gurgled and water pushed upward through the bathtub drains.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next thing I know, water started coming up from underneath,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Soon after midnight, the neighborhood lost power. In darkness, floodwater crept through homes while residents struggled to understand how severe conditions had become.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of a sudden it was water. I\u2019m stepping in water,\u201d she said. \u201cI said, \u2018Oh, we\u2019re in our tomb.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Within a short time, Buford-Johnson said floodwater had risen nearly 2 feet inside her home. She said she and her teenage daughter climbed onto a bed while she repeatedly called 911 as emergency crews across the county responded to hundreds of rescue calls.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not going to die today,\u201d she remembered telling her daughter. \u201cCalm down. It\u2019s going to be OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more New \u2018Hiker\u2019s Guide to the Sunshine State\u2019 features 1,000+ trails<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Rescue crews eventually reached the neighborhood by boat. Buford-Johnson said responders had to force open the front door against the pressure of the floodwaters trapped inside the house.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they opened that door, the rest of the water came rushing into the house,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The flooding across Orlo Vista reflected the scale of Ian\u2019s impact on Orange County\u2019s stormwater system. Jeff Charles, operations supervisor for Orange County Stormwater Management, said crews prepared days before landfall by lowering retention ponds and staging emergency pumps throughout vulnerable areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe pumped it as low as it could possibly go,\u201d Charles said of the Orlo Vista basin system.<\/p>\n

Even with pumps capable of moving 40,000 gallons per minute, the storm exceeded the system\u2019s legal capacity. Nearby Shingle Creek overflowed beyond its banks, while water flowing from neighborhoods north of State Road 50 and State Road 408 poured into the same basin serving Orlo Vista.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll three ponds were one huge pond,\u201d Charles said.<\/p>\n

The flooding trapped residents inside homes, submerged vehicles and left many families displaced for months. Buford-Johnson and her daughter escaped into freezing water before climbing onto the hood of a car to wait for rescue.<\/p>\n

Since Ian, Orange County has deepened stormwater ponds in the area and repaired damaged pumps to improve flood storage and drainage before future storms. For residents like Buford-Johnson, though, the memory of Ian still lingers every hurricane season.<\/p>\n

Read more Hurricane season 2026: How do you protect your home from trees?<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t give up,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to be OK together.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hurricane Ian turned Orlo Vista into a lake. When the storm stalled over Central Florida in September 2022, it dropped historic rainfall across Orange County, overwhelming canals, retention ponds and stormwater systems designed decades earlier. Entire streets in the west Orange County community disappeared underwater as residents scrambled to escape rising floodwaters in the middle [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1602,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,13,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hurricanes","category-news","category-weather"],"yoast_head":"\nHurricane season 2026: Tropical rainfall brings flooding pain to Central Florida - Orlando Relocation Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=1603\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hurricane season 2026: Tropical rainfall brings flooding pain to Central Florida - Orlando Relocation Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hurricane Ian turned Orlo Vista into a lake. 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