Orlo Vista residents hope for flooding solution as they restore community
Cleanup efforts continued in Orlo Vista Saturday.
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Residents woke up before sunrise and sorted through their belongings.
District 6 Commissioner Victoria Siplin organized a community cleanup.
Read: ‘Nothing has been done’: Orlo Vista residents fed up with ongoing flooding issues
This brought Orange County emergency management and volunteers to help residents in need.
More than a week after Hurricane Ian, residents are devastated by the flooding and are still frustrated by Orange County’s response.
Orlo Vista resident Levi Williams has lived in her home since she was 17.
“Everything in my house is gone,” she said. “Gone, my oven had about a gallon or two of water in it.”
Read: SEE: Receding floodwaters in Orlo Vista reveal a dinosaur-like fish trapped in a fence
She said her home saw more than 2 feet of flooding and a week after Ian passed, she has been waking up early to clean up and salvage what she can.
This is not the first time residents have had to start from scratch.
“We did the same thing five years ago,” Clara Amos said.
Read: Orlo Vista residents want change after flooding from Hurricane Ian
A group of volunteers and FEMA officials were in the neighborhood to help people like Amos clean up yet again.
“We can’t do this every five years, so we got to get out of here,” Amos said.
Residents praised Siplin for her boots-on-the-ground approach to help, but some residents expressed frustration that the county did not do more to prevent this devastation.
“We have too much technology for this to be happening in a neighborhood,” resident Levi Williams said. “We can’t control God’s work but our politicians can fix this.”
After Hurricane Irma put homes underwater in 2017, a $10 million project was approved to expand the area’s retention ponds. But that work is not scheduled to start until next month.
Williams said it shouldn’t have taken this long to get something done. She wants the mayor to hold a public meeting where citizens can be included in finding a way to fix the flooding.
“We want to see it on paper,” Williams said.
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