ORLANDO, Fla. — As Hurricane Milton churns in the gulf, residents in the Orlo Vista area of Orange County are taking precautions.

The neighborhood suffered devastating flooding during both Hurricanes Irma and Ian.

Orange County officials are standing by the nearly completed Orlo Vista Flood Mitigation Project, which they say will help with flooding.

Clarence Laster isn’t taking any chances ahead of Milton, wasting no time packing up his car.

“I am putting the stuff that we want to save and keep just in case we get flooded. I am going to put that in storage. So I am going to load stuff up here and take it over there,” said Laster.

He’s lived in his home in Orla Vista since the 80s, weathering the flooding of Hurricane Irma, and needing to be rescued out of his home during the flooding caused by Hurricane Ian.

“We lost all our clothes, everything. When we walked out of there I was in my underwear when we came out of the house, left everything in there,” said Laster.

It took five months and nearly $70,000 dollars to recover from that, and with another storm on the horizon, he’s being extra cautious this time.

“We don’t want to go through that no more,” said Laster.

He’s packed up the essentials, including important documents in ziplock bags.

“I’ve got my passport in here,” said Laster.

However, he does feel more at ease this time, thanks to the Orlo Vista flood mitigation project, which is right at the end of his road.

According to Orange County officials, this project has tripled the amount of water that can be held by the three ponds on by making them much deeper and therefore allows them to draw the water down ahead of a storm, as they have done ahead of Milton. While the project is not finished, they expect it to work as intended, to protect the area from a 100-year flood event.  

“It makes me feel a lot better than the last time because they have done a lot of work out there and its deep and it can hold a lot of water and I hope that it do take care of the problem in this neighborhood once and for all,” said Laster.

At this point, Laster shared he feels safe and will probably ride out the storm at home, hoping to have a different outcome this time.

“I am hoping that we come out smelling like a rose,” said Laster.

Laster said if he does start to feel that the water table is rising ahead of the storm, he will evacuate.