With Hurricane Milton expected to unleash life-threatening floods and hurricane force wind gusts on Volusia and Flagler counties, residents and public officials worked frantically in the remaining safe hours before the storm to prepare for the deluge.
In Port Orange, portions of the city were severely flooded following back-to-back tropical storms Ian and Nicole two years ago, in part because a dam in the city's Cambridge Canal drainage system was breached, which caused water to pour out on to residential streets.
Port Orange Mayor Don Burnette on Wednesday morning expressed hope that the Cambridge system "should work fine" this time around when Hurricane Milton is expected to hit the Volusia-Flagler area Wednesday night into Thursday morning.
"(The city's) Public Works (crew) was very busy leading up to the storm and did great work with prep," said Burnette.
The city has low-lying areas on its south end, particularly east of Ridgewood Avenue "that we will be watching with great concern,” Burnette said.
"How fast the water comes down can be an issue as much as how much. The Nova Canal brings a lot of water our way on top of handling what we put in it and its ability to flow out is directly affected by the tides and tidal surge on the ocean.
“We can usually handle as much as 10 inches of rain, which is a tremendous amount, but I'm concerned since the forecast (for Hurricane Milton) exceeds that and we've already had quite a bit (of rain) these past few days and weeks."
In Volusia County, Milton is expected to produce 10-15 inches of rain, with the potential for locally higher amounts of 18 inches, according to the National Weather Service in Melbourne. The worst of that rainfall is expected in southeast Volusia, closer to the storm’s anticipated path through Brevard County.
Most residents were taking the threat seriously.
In Port Orange, Burnette noted that the city gave out over 30,000 sandbags "which was almost 5,000 more than for Ian. That shows how serious people took preparation and I'm very glad to see it. I am praying for everyone, and we will be there for them on the other side of this."
In Daytona Beach, business owners finish familiar preparation rituals
In Daytona Beach's historic downtown business district, businesses on Beach Street have been flooded in the past whenever the area gets hit by hurricanes and tropical storms.
Sheryl Cook, co-owner of Tom Cook Jeweler at 150 S. Beach St., and her family have been through this drill many times over the decades. The fourth-generation family-owned business has been a fixture on Beach Street since 1947.
"We have our storm shutter down, sandbags behind them, and then added Quick Dam Flood bags," Cook said on Wednesday morning. "Everything has been lifted off the floors and sandbags have also been placed at the back door."
Cook expressed hope that the city's new Riverfront Esplanade park across the street will help to reduce flooding on Beach Street since it is higher than the original park.
"The problem is that at Magnolia (Avenue) the water still comes up through the low area and floods Magnolia quickly and then Palmetto (Avenue). Most businesses boarded up (on Tuesday) knowing that (Milton) was going to be a big storm."
A couple blocks up the street, Meghan Duran, owner of Madeline's Wine Bar at 200 N. Beach St., is hoping for a better outcome than two years ago when her business got flooded during both Ian and Nicole just months after she opened.
"I unfortunately do expect flooding, but we have taken all the precautions we could do to ensure that we would be able to clean and reopen quickly," she said on Wednesday morning.
Duran praised her landlord, Jack White of the Jack White Land Company, for doing what he could to secure the outside of the building. Those measures included putting putty on all the door cracks, Gorilla tape on top, and then plastic sheeting and sandbags.
"We did everything (Tuesday) and got it all sealed up so we could stay at home today (Wednesday)," she said.
Jack White, who owns several buildings in downtown Daytona Beach with his wife Kelly, a former City Commissioner, said that he has a system for storm preparation.
"I have stopped trying to predict the effects (of incoming hurricanes),” he said. “My focus is usually storm surge. I use a four-prong approach, puttying the door seams, tape them up, put plastic over that, and then sandbag. I'm not sure what effects will be for the Esplanade."
At Latitude Margaritaville, spirit of cooperation eases anxiety
A few miles further inland at the Latitude Margaritaville "55-and-better" community on LPGA Boulevard, resident Kelley Sarantis was heartened by a spirit of cooperation amid the anxiety.
"With lots of new retired folks from other parts of the country, there is a lot of worry and concern, but more experienced Floridians are talking them through it, so it's been very heartwarming," she said.
A Realtor who specializes in helping people buy and sell existing homes at Latitude Margaritaville Daytona Beach, Sarantis said a number of residents have gotten sandbags to place in front of their doors, but said "not too much (are) boarding up because the windows are the newer double-pane low-E wind resistant (kind)."
Milton forces closures, cancellations
Daytona Beach International Airport announced on its website that it was closing in advance of Hurricane Milton at 10 a.m. Wednesday. All commercial flights on Wednesday were canceled.
"Resumption of commercial service at DAB (Daytona airport) will be determined after post-storm inspections," the Volusia County-run airport stated.
In Port Orange, Amy Hall of the nonprofit Port Orange Community Trust announced that the Port Orange Family Days festival that was scheduled to run Thursday through Sunday had been postponed because due to the storm.
New dates for the 29th annual Port Orange Family Days event at the Port Orange City Center have yet to be determined.
"We are hoping to reschedule sometime maybe later this year or in early spring (2025)," said Hall in a video message posted on the Port Orange Community Trust's Facebook page.
For those who bought carnival ride tickets in advance, the community trust will either refund the money or honor the carnival ride armbands when the 29th Family Days event does take place, she said.
In New Smyrna Beach and Edgewater, anxiety about flooding
Most of the preparations were done by Wednesday morning in Southeast Volusia communities, where the threat of flooding continues to be the main concern for residents.
On Wednesday morning, New Smyrna Beach’s beachside was almost all ready for Milton’s impacts. Most residents had already stacked sandbags in front of their doors and garages and boarded up windows.
The scene was the same on Flagler Avenue, the popular business district that saw frightening storm surge during Tropical Storm Ian that flooded many businesses . With Milton’s new threat, establishments all along the street were sandbagged and boarded up.
To those living in low-lying areas, the flood risk is even greater, even though many have been through the ordeal before.
Randy Keller, who has lived at his home on Goodwin Avenue, close to Flagler Avenue, since 2016. He has had to deal with water intrusion from almost every hurricane or tropical storm system that has hit the area since.
“We flooded every single storm,” Keller said as he finished final preparations. “Matthew, Irma, Ian, Nicole.”
Instead of sandbags, Keller chose to put foam material “caulking around” doorways around his house, saying that he is “more worried about the water than the wind.”
After eight years of dealing with impacts of hurricanes and storms to his home, Keller said that while the surprise element is gone, it is always a concerning time for him and his family.
“It’s anxiety when you see a storm coming, but, you know, it’s kind of a fact of life living here,” Keller said. “It’s happened every time, so it’s probably going to happen again.”
According to city spokesman Phil Veski, “residents have received over 70,000 sandbags since the city's distribution site opened on Oct. 5.”
In West Volusia, Stone Island residents also wary of flooding
In the flood-prone neighborhoods of Stone Island, along the banks of Lake Monroe on the southern edge of Deltona, the huge lake hadn’t yet started to flood its banks on Wednesday.
However, Stone Island residents such as Jerry Hutson are familiar with situations when the water has risen thigh-high after rainfall, flooding some homes.
“All of Stone Island floods,” said the owner of a home on Shell Mound Road, who didn’t want her name used. How does she prepare?
“Sandbags,” she said, closing her front door.
Another Shell Mound Road resident, Mike Sevino, said Lake Monroe is 3.65 feet higher right now and would need another six feet of water to start flooding neighborhoods.
“I was 14 inches from flooding for Ian,” Sevino said.
Sevino thinks that neighborhood residents aren’t sandbagging as much for Milton as they did ahead of previous storms when prefilled sandbags were available for residents.
This time, a pile of sand was dropped in the parking lot of a nearby fire station and homeowners had to fill their own bags, Sevino said.
In Flagler, bird-watching, peanut butter, jerky and storm prep
A group of University of Florida students had driven in from Gainesville and set up an observation post under one of the shelters near the Flagler Beach pier on Wednesday.
From there, they placed cameras on tripods and peered through binoculars as they scanned the skies over the rough surf searching for seafaring birds blown toward land. Some plastic protected the camera and equipment from the rain.
“With these super big storms, tropical storms, hurricanes, they blow in these amazing offshore sea birds,” said Matthew Schuler. “So we are out there looking.”
He said the group, which studies wildlife ecology and conservation students, just saw a type of offshore bird, a shearwater.
“They are typically very deep water birds,” said Nicholas Canino about shearwaters. “They are pelagic so you really won’t see them unless you are 30 or 40 miles out on a boat.
“They tend to like following cargo ships and cruise ships around, but when these winds blow for days on end onshore they’ll get pushed in very close to the shore,” Canino said. “It’s a really cool opportunity ‘cause people like us who can’t afford to go out on a boat to find them can see them, can see them really close to the shore.”
While they searched for birds, others were looking at the rough surf rolling in.
Anthony and Kristin McLaughlin of Palm Coast said they were ready for Milton.
“Lots of water,” said Kristin McLaughlin.
“And peanut butter and jerky,” said Anthony McLaughlin.
They said they were more worried about Milton’s impact on Flagler Beach then they were where they lived in Palm Coast. They felt safe from flooding on the third floor of their apartment building.
“We are just waiting for the power outage,” she said.
Some people were still scrambling to find last minute supplies. Bob Stotts, who lives in Halifax Plantation, stopped at the Ace Hardware store near State Road 100 and Old Kings Road. But he did not find the batteries he needed for his flashlight.
Others were walking up to the Winn-Dixie in the same shopping center and finding that it was closed. The Publix in Flagler Beach was also closed.
Jerry Prutsman who lives at Marina Bay in Flagler Beach did find what he needed at Ace, some electrical gear so he could hook things up to his generator.
Prutsman said this was his first hurricane and his building backed up to the Intracoastal. But he said he was well prepared with things, including the generator, sandbags and other supplies.
“We got a super sound building,” he said.
Clayton Park, Brenno Carillo, Patricio Balona and Frank Fernandez of the News-Journal staff contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: 'Hang on Daytona': As Milton's rainfall begins, Volusia-Flagler await height of storm
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