ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Orange County is holding a virtual meeting to discuss a new floodplain management plan. It’s something the county has to update every five years in connection with guidance from the National Flood Insurance Program.

What You Need To Know

  • Orange County held a virtual meeting discussing their new floodplain management plan

  • The public could learn about the county’s 23-item action plan, as well as give input with what they want the county to address when it comes to flood management

  • Orange County leaders told Spectrum News 13 while they’ve identified a number of potential projects within this plan, getting them done will depend on funding and permitting

While officials have a draft of this plan, citizens could join the meeting virtually Thursday at 5:30 p.m. There they learned about the county’s 23-item action plan.

“We want to solicit input from the residents that there might be areas that we’re not aware," said Daniel Negron, Chief Engineer for Orange County Stormwater Management. "We also want to take into account infrastructure, assess that, and that everything is compiled into this floodplain management plan.”

One person who lives in Azalea Park hopes the county addresses his neighborhood drainage system with this new floodplain management plan.

Sweeping away the fall leaves, Jayson Whelpley has lived in his Azalea Park home for 10 years. For him, this was his sliver of paradise, until Hurricane Ian hit.

“Ian was really the bad one. We had 13 inches of rain in 12 hours. The lake came up and met the road. When it met in the middle, it started coming into the house,” Whelpley said.

One year later, he’s thankfully repaired everything, but he hopes to see the county address and add more storm drains in his area.

“It’s draining seven blocks’ worth of water to one drain. It can’t handle that,” Whelpley said.

Negron said there are a lot of takeaways from the 2022 storm season that are addressed within this new floodplain management plan.

“With input from the community, we can now have a longer list as to what the weak areas are. One part of the plan is to come up with different potentially weak areas that we can improve upon either through a capital improvement project, better outreach,” Negron said.

While there is a lot of business to get done, Negron said it will take time to address all action items. But for Whelpley, time is of the essence and he wants to make sure the flooding that’s happening near his house is mitigated.

Orange County leaders told Spectrum News 13 while they’ve identified a number of potential projects within this plan, getting them done will depend on funding and permitting. Next steps include a meeting with a committee over comments received from people living in the area.