Irma’s smackdown last year was instructive for Central Florida because it wasn’t a hurricane for the region and yet it still delivered mayhem.
The storm was born Aug. 30 near Africa. It surged into a catastrophic Category 5 with 185 mph winds. It hit the Keys as a Cat 4 and plowed north, passing through the Orlando area the night of Sunday, Sept. 10, and morning of Sept. 11.
For Central Florida, Irma was a hurricane only in name. Sustained wind at Orlando International Airport peaked at 59 mph, short of the 74 mph of a minimal hurricane.
Still, Irma was scary, wet, messy, punishing and suggestive of how bad it could be if a true hurricane-strength storm trounces Central Florida.
1. Get out of town while you can.
Irma was coming, and Orlando International Airport was on a tick-tick to becoming a ghost town.
MCO ceased commercial flights at 5:17 p.m. Sept. 9, about 24 hours before Irma’s advance gusts began knocking at Central Florida’s door.
Vacationers especially were frantic to get out of Irma’s way. Some of the big airlines pushed back on the chaos, jiggering flight times, to the relief of their passengers.
But some of the smaller and foreign carriers left their customers in tears, families huddled in bewilderment, with nobody at counters or customer-service numbers.
In the background, airport workers were mummifying ticket-counter computers with plastic wrap and were outside tying down jet bridges.
Eventually, about 21,000 airport employees were told to stay home.
The airport would slowly resume function Tuesday, Sept. 12.
2. Maybe sandbags aren’t a bad idea.
Irma rained and rained and rained, nearly as much as Tropical Storm Fay.
Irma swamped Christmas in east Orange County with 17.4 inches of rain.
Orlando International got 7.2 inches.
Sanford: 9.9
Lake Mary: 12.5.
Leesburg: 10.1.
Downtown Orlando: 7.7.
Magic Kingdom: 10.3.
The downpour stunned the Orlo Vista community in west Orange County. Despite a significant flood-control system there, thanks to Hurricane Donna in 1960, Irma flooded hundreds of homes.
The St. Johns River in Seminole County was left swollen for weeks.
Yet Fay, merely a tropical storm, continues to be a reminder of what a really wet cyclone can deliver.
That 2008 storm dumped more than 2 feet of rain on much of Brevard County and more than 15 inches on Seminole.
3. Sewage treatment plants will break down.
Much of Florida’s peninsula, streets, fields, lakes and homes literally ran with sewage during Irma. The tide of stink was unprecedented because Irma pummeled so much of the state’s peninsula from South to North Florida.
Troubles hit small apartment complexes that relied on sewage pumps, and the biggest treatment plants broke down in myriad ways.
“In most instances, overflows were the result of loss of power, broken lines or the inflow capacity of the system being exceeded due to heavy rain,” the Florida Department of Environmental Protection reported this month.
The agency said it investigated 84 facilities for equipment or operation violations, which brought 42 enforcement actions with penalties of nearly $430,000.
The agency allowed facilities to pay penalties by spending 1½ times as much on upgrades to their systems. Facilities also were required to install generators and update emergency plans.
4. Storm projections aren’t always accurate.
Irma and Hurricane Charley in 2004 were alike in playing with our minds until the final days.
Both approached from the south, bedeviling forecasters with uncertainty over what part of the peninsula the storm would zip up.
In the last hours, the projected track for both storms was Tampa Bay – until they changed their minds and headed north along the state’s spine.
After Irma, a National Hurricane Center specialist confirmed that potential error in forecast tracks is 40 to 45 miles per day.
The state spans only about 130 miles at its widest girth.
Bottom line, say forecasters: Don’t get too comfy with storms projected to hit somewhere else in Florida.
5. You might be in the dark.
In Orange, Seminole, Lake, Osceola, Brevard and Volusia counties alone Irma cut power to more than 1 million homes.
There is a sobering takeaway from that number.
Utility officials said that when Irma hit, their systems had never been better prepared for a storm, with stronger poles and wires, smart-grid defenses and other measures.
That was thanks to a spree of hurricanes in 2004 and 2005 that exposed glaring weaknesses in the state’s electrical system.
Also credited was the wake-up call of Hurricane Matthew two years ago, which was poised to deliver a crushing blow but instead steered offshore.
Irma, despite its enormous coverage, was not a bruiser of a storm. The storm resulted in crews mostly restoring but not reconstructing systems, utility officials said.
In general, trees crashed into power lines, but power poles didn’t crash to the ground.
The vast majority of homes got power back within a week.
kspear@orlandosentinel.com
