Flood — Osceola, Florida

2022-09-28 to 2022-09-30 · near Alligator Lake City, Osceola, Florida

Event narrative

Rainfall totals averaging between 8 to 12 inches, with locally higher amounts of up to 16 inches were reported, resulting in widespread street, urban, and poor drainage flooding. Numerous roadways were impacted by significant levels of standing water and many retention ponds reached capacity or overflowed. Notable flooding occurred in communities adjacent to Lake Center and Runnymede Lake in St. Cloud, as well as Mill Slough and Boggy Creek in Kissimmee. A NWS Flood Survey, combined with areal photography, confirmed historic flooding along Shingle Creek and within Good Samaritan Village in Kissimmee. Shingle Creek reached a record crest of 64.21 ft. on Oct. 1. A 71-year-old was discovered drowned face down in a foot of water in his home in the Good Samaritan Village in Kissimmee on Oct. 5 (direct).

A damage assessment report from the county indicated 4226 structures affected, 2474 with minor damage, 1733 with major damage, and 5 destroyed. The combined effects of Ian led to total estimated damages of approximately $245M across, mainly due to widespread and historic flooding.

Wider weather episode

After making landfall as a major hurricane in southwest Florida near Cayo Costa, Ian crossed the peninsula and into east central Florida (southern Osceola County) as a Category 1 Hurricane with estimated maximum sustained winds of 75 mph. The system was downgraded to a tropical storm shortly thereafter and emerged into the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Canaveral. Ian's slow movement and large wind field led to a long period of tropical storm force winds across all of east central Florida, as well as hurricane force gusts in squalls and historic rainfall and flooding across parts of the area. Widespread rainfall totals of 4 to 8 inches were reported throughout the area, with a corridor of 10 to 20 inches across Osceola, Orange, Seminole, Volusia, and northern Brevard counties. The maximum observed rainfall total was 21.09 inches in Spruce Creek, Volusia County. The St. Johns River experienced historic rises with record crests set at Astor, Deland, Sanford, and Lake Harney in the days and weeks following Ian's heavy rainfall. A tornado briefly touched down and crossed US-192 in rural Brevard County with no damage to structures reported. Persistent onshore flow before and during the storm led to water level rises (storm surge) of 1-3 feet along the east central Florida, bringing moderate to severe beach erosion, with the most significant effects noted in Volusia County. Collectively, the effects of Hurricane Ian led to 15 storm-related fatalities (6 direct and 9 indirect) and between $800-900M in property damage across east central Florida.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (28.1684, -81.1433)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1058282. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.