After days of warnings and preparation, Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region on Thursday night as a Category 4 storm. Tropical storm-force winds and heavy rains extended 300 miles from its center, leaving an estimated 1.2 million statewide residents without power; more than 38,000 are in Central Florida.
The City of Winter Park reopened City Hall, all administrative offices, and city parks today, Friday, Sept. 27, and the Emergency Operations Center has returned to Level 3 monitoring. Approximately 1,818 Winter Park Electric Utility customers experienced storm-related outages with 70 remaining as of this morning. City-wide electric utility restoration is expected by noon today. Business owners could be seen sweeping debris from the sidewalk along Park Avenue as the breakfast rush picked up at area restaurants.
According to a city staff report, four downed trees and a number of fallen limbs were reported and Winter Park Police Department worked through the night to keep roadways open. City lakes have returned to normal operations with re-established water control infrastructure and no flooding has been reported as of this morning.
Classes are back in session at Orange County Public Schools, Rollins College and Valencia College, and SunRail is back on schedule after crews gave the all-clear along the rail line. Residents can expect Waste Pro service to resume today and Thursday’s missed pick-up will be made up tomorrow, Saturday, Sept. 28. Winter Park Library and all local museums and community centers have also returned to normal operations.
Last year, Winter Park adopted a new guide for the active management of city lake levels that uses seven-day forecasts for advanced preparation for potential storms. The city’s basin studies have wrapped-up and the results will be discussed at a City Commission work session in October. Hurricane season ends on November 30 and residents are advised to keep emergency supplies handy in case of another storm warning or advisory.
The list of official City of Winter Park information resources is as follows:
- citEnews email service – cityofwinterpark.org/citEnews
- Facebook – facebook.com/WinterParkEmergencyInfo
- Twitter – twitter.com/WinterParkFla
- Nextdoor – sign up at nextdoor.com
- City’s emergency alert system – sign up at cityofwinterpark.org/outreach.
Other resources include:
- Non-emergency information line 407-599-3494 (live during Emergency Operation Center activation)
- Report electric utility power outages to 1-877-811-8700
- Report water & wastewater utilities outages to 407-599-3219
