ORLO VISTA, Fla. — As Hurricane Helene inches closes to Florida, Orange County officials are preparing to make sure residents stay safe. One area they are paying close attention to is Orlo Vista, which suffered devastating flooding during both hurricanes Irma and Ian.

But now a new layer of protection, the Orlo Vista flood mitigation project, is nearly completed. Orange County officials said the project is built to keep the area dry even during a 100-year storm event, which is a huge relief for those who live there.

Clarence Laster can still remember exactly how high the flood waters got in his home during Hurricane Ian.

“It came up to here, all the way around,” he said, pointing about halfway up his front door.

He’s lived in his home in Orlo Vista since 1982 — he weathered the flooding of Hurricane Irma and needed to be rescued out of his home during the flooding caused by Hurricane Ian.

“It just kept raining and raining and it raining," Laster said. "And the water couldn’t go nowhere."

After repairing his home, he said it gives him peace of mind to be able to watch the progress of the Orlo Vista flood mitigation project at the end of his block.

“I said, 'Wow,' and I went out and looked and stuff," he said. "It was so deep — it was breathtaking when they first started digging it out. It will hold a lot of water.”

Orange County is nearly finished the Orlo Vista flood mitigation project after years of research and work. The project, which involved excavating nearly 30,000 dump trucks full of material, increases the size of the ponds at this site and allows the county to prepare them to hold more water ahead of a storm — which is what they are doing ahead of Hurricane Helene. 

“We have three ponds here at the Orlo Vista site, and we have expanded all those ponds vertically, basically tripling the amount of water that each of these three ponds can hold," said Orange County Public Works spokesperson Darrel Moody. "So, in advance of a storm coming, what we do is we draw the water down to what is an acceptable level. And right now, there is about 10% — of the water that these ponds are able to hold, is about 10% of the water in them right now.”

While the project was supposed to be completed in February, it was delayed due to supply chain issues and the permanent pumps have still yet to be installed. However, in the meantime, engineers have installed temporary pumps that they expect to work just the same, allowing them to keep the water levels low and move it into the Shingle Creek watershed.

“These ponds and the pumps will all function today the way they are designed to function once the final configuration and components are in place,” said Moody.

As for Laster, he’s been very involved, attending community meetings about the project to give his input. And he said he makes sure to walk down the road to check out the progress every so often.

After listening to the county’s presentations and watching the work with his own eyes, he said he feels much more comfortable this hurricane season.

“I can go ahead and go to sleep and don’t worry about nothing,” said Laster. “Everything’s going to be taken care of.”

He was feeling confident that the project will keep his community safe this time.

“I think it’s going to work and we, we’ve solved the problem of getting flooded in this neighborhood right now,” said Laster.

Moody said the county will have extra crews on hand ready with portable pumps to monitor the situation.

They also expect to have this project totally completed, and to have the permanent pumps in place, early next year.