Hurricanes Ian and Nicole, the latter paying Osceola County a rare November visit from a tropical system, were both historical.
We know how Ian broke all kinds of rainfall records — and through flood plains — when it dropped 15 inches of rain over 32 hours Sept. 28-29.
Nicole brought tropical storm-force winds and no more than three inches of rain to any part of the county. But it was the first November landfalling storm of hurricane force on Florida’s Atlantic coast since 1935, and is now only the fourth hurricane to make a continental U.S. landfall in November since records started being kept in 1851.
The center of both storms passed through Osceola County, creating an ‘X’ in the southern end of the county. Whereas Ian traveled northeast into Brevard County, Nicole’s center of circulation, as broad as it was, moved northwest, almost directly up Florida’s Turnpike.
(For those who experienced the triple-whammy of 2004 hurricanes, here’s a great tidbit: both hurricanes Charley and Jeanne that year, and Ian and Nicole this year, occurred 43 days apart, although 2004 also had Frances in between.)
Although Nicole didn’t have a defined eye when it made its way inland into Osceola, many people in areas like Kissimmee and Poinciana reportedly very subdued winds and conditions just before and after dawn Thursday.
Sustained winds remained at or below 45 mph, which county officials said allowed first responders to continually serve, and not have to pull off of routes and roadways. A maximum wind gust of 50 mph was recorded at the Kissimmee Gateway Airport and an unofficial one of 62 mph reported at Osceola Heritage Park.
Countywide rain totals were mostly 1-2 inches with some areas getting up to three inches. Overall, county officials said, Nicole exited Osceola County Thursday afternoon with “isolated and minimal impacts” that included minor flooding and wind debris, but nothing that required evacuation or the opening of shelters.
The county’s sandbag operation distributed 29,000 bags between Monday afternoon and Wednesday noontime, when the site was secured. (To compare, over 300,000 sandbags were filled in preparing for Ian.)
At its height Thursday morning, Kissimmee Utility Authority reported about 2,000 customers without power, who were all restored by that afternoon. Toho Water Authority placed a precautionary boil water advisory for customers in Harmony and the Pine Glen neighborhoods following a power outage at the Harmony area water plant.
A relative lack of damage was equaled by a lack of significant incidents reported to or by the Osceola County Sheriff ’s Office.
“Sheriff (Marcos) Lopez and the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office would like to thank the citizens of Osceola County for heeding the warnings about the potential danger of the storm, sheltering in place, and staying off the streets during the storm period. The Sheriff’s Office was prepared with extra resources and ready to meet the community’s necessities,” an OCSO release said by the time the worst was over Thursday.
