Hurricane Ian: Damages top $170m in Orange, too early to tell in Seminole, Osceola
As Hurricane Ian’s floodwaters are receding in parts of Central Florida, the damage left behind is coming into focus, with estimates counting well into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
In Orange County alone, assessors estimate damage totaling $172.5 million including commercial and residential, property appraiser Amy Mercado said Thursday, though some properties can’t be reached yet due to flooding. That’s more than three times higher than was counted during Hurricane Irma in 2017 when initial counts showed $51.67 million in damage.
While Seminole and Osceola counties didn’t provide initial estimates Thursday, totals are expected to be high as well, as flooding continues near Lake Monroe in downtown Sanford, in areas near Lake Harney, and in Osceola along the Shingle Creek basin.
Seminole officials already have compiled a list of at least 4,500 damaged properties after the storm.
“Some more than others,” property appraiser David Johnson said. “That database may continue to grow. ... And we’ll start looking at those properties and making those adjustments for the 2023 tax roll.”
The bulk of the damage in Seminole has been from flooding, rather than the powerful winds of past hurricanes, he said.
He noted that many of the flooded areas in Seminole — including Spring Oaks in Altamonte Springs, downtown Sanford and near Lake Harney — have consistently flooded during previous large rain events or storms.
“It’s a higher number than we’ve had in the past,” he said.
Orange County officials have counted 488 damaged commercial and residential properties so far, as well as estimated totals of some homes too flooded to thoroughly review, said Ana Torres, the chief deputy property appraiser. Assessors have reviewed more than 1,000 properties, and have plans to look at least 200 more.
In Osceola, a team began assessing damage last Friday after Ian left the area. Work is expected to continue at least into next week in hopes of reaching areas where flooding was too severe to access, said Kenny Pennington, Osceola’s chief deputy property appraiser.
“We’ve never had flooding like we had after Ian,” Pennington said, though Hurricane Charley in 2004 likely was more destructive.
The county’s hardest hit areas are along Shingle Creek and Boggy Creek, as well as the Good Samaritan Society Kissimmee Village and Buenaventura Lakes, he said.
Lake County was spared from the brunt of Hurricane Ian and benefitted from a wobbly track that kept the worst of the storm away. So far about $2 million in damage has been documented over more than 100 parcels, said Rob Brown, the chief deputy property appraiser.
Most damage is in flood-prone Astor, where $1.5 million has been recorded so far, Brown said, adding that assessors are hoping to return there in the coming days to review more properties once floods recede.
The remaining damage has been from wind, he said.
“Most of this is wind damage, but overall I think the county got extremely lucky,” he said.
