- November 14, 2024
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Many Ormond Beach residents woke up the morning of Friday, Sept. 30, picked up their gardening gloves and garbage bags, and got to work.
Hurricane Ian caused "catastrophic rainfall and wind damage" per a Volusia County press release, and in Ormond Beach, downed trees, broken branches and debris littered the streets. In neighborhoods around the Ormond Beach Performing Arts Center, Beach Street and Central Park, residents are plagued with significant flooding. The city is asking residents to conserve as much water as possible over the next few days to prevent further stress on the city's wastewater system.
Many remained without power throughout Volusia County on Friday.
Stevie Hanks, is one of them. A beachside resident, she has lived in Ormond Beach since 1999 and said Ian was one of the strongest storms she's experienced. The noise of the wind kept her up and she watched the storm through her window. She felt secure in her home, but the walls and windows were shaking, she recalled.
"There was a banging across the top of my roof, and I thought it was debris maybe," Hanks said. "But then when I woke up, the roof tiles are all over the yard."
She was not expecting Ian to be that strong when it passed over Ormond Beach. Several trees in the lot next to her house fell during the night.
"It was definitely one of the biggest ones that I've experienced and the closest to the beach I've been in when it was going on," Hanks said.
Over in the North Beach Street neighborhoods, residents Terry and Pete Mercer were cleaning up their front yard of branches and debris. Terry Mercer said she thought the area got lucky in comparison to the devastation in Fort Myers.
"We're just counting our blessings right now, to be honest," she said.
The couple were worried about trees falling on their house as they experienced significant wind gusts through the storm. It felt like a Category 1 hurricane as it passed them, Mercer added, and said that based on this experience, if a Category 1 or 2 hurricane impacts the area in the future, they would evacuate.
In The Trails subdivision, some residents walked around the sidewalks surveying damage in the morning. A city crew worked on clearing downed trees off Main Trail.
Resident Amanda Drury worked to clear branches off her yard. She said she and her family rode out the storm calmly and were doing well. Hurricane Matthew and Irma were worse, Drury said.
"We were kind of expecting our fence to be down," she said. "We have four dogs, so we're on the lookout for that. But, it happened. All good."
