County site crashes after thousands of Seminole residents apply for virus relief dollars

Within a minute after Seminole County launched its online portal on Wednesday for residents who are struggling financially to apply for CARES Act funding, the site already had 200 applications waiting in the queue, county officials said.

An hour later, the site briefly crashed several times because of the overwhelming number of applications. And by 1 p.m., three hours after the portal opened, more than 6,000 individuals had applied to receive financial help to pay up to three months of their rent or mortgage, and utility bills, because of the economic shutdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Residents who eventually managed to apply online found the web site painstakingly slow in delivering a confirmation notice.

“We know we’ve had a technology issue on the volume and the amount of those trying to get in,” Seminole Commission Chairman Jay Zembower said. “Our staff and our contractor are fully aware of it, and they are working feverishly to rectify that problem … Bear with us. We’ll get it worked out as quickly as humanly possible.”