DAMAGES — This home on West Minnesota Avenue in DeLand suffered serious damages from Hurricane Ian, which hit Volusia County with tropical storm force winds.
JUMP TO: Road closures
JUMP TO: Trash pickup information
For photos of the cleanup effort in DeLand, click HERE.
UPDATE 5:30 P.M. SEPT. 30
Hurricane Ian in Volusia County: ‘The recovery and healing process from this storm is underway’
Key takeaways:
— The number of deaths attributed to Hurricane Ian in Volusia County has risen to three.
— Astor is expected to reach historic flood levels this evening and tonight as St. Johns River water levels continue to rise.
— Volusia County shelters will shut down at 10 a.m. tomorrow, Oct. 1. The Ocean Center, 101 N. Atlantic Ave. in Daytona Beach, will be the staging area for the American Red Cross and act as a shelter going forward.
— As of 1 p.m. today, Sept. 30, around 184,000 people in Volusia County were without power. That’s down from more than 250,000 without power yesterday, Sept. 29.
— Anyone interested in lending a hand and assisting with cleanup efforts can volunteer on the United Way of Volusia/Flagler counties website, HERE, or by calling the Volusia County Citizens Information Center at 866-345-0345.
Work is underway to clean up areas damaged by Ian, and flooding is still affecting many people, Volusia County officials said at a news conference at 3 p.m. Friday, Sept. 30
The St. Johns River at Astor is at 4.65 inches, breaking the previous record of 4.62 inches set in 1933.
“It’s over the sea wall and will be up maybe another 5 or 6 inches when the river flows back and we get all the run off from upstream,” Beacon staff member and Riviera Resort & Marina Assistant Manager Michael Jaeckle.
“[J]ust because the storm has moved on, the danger has not,” Volusia County Community Information Director Kevin Captain said. “Many roads remain underwater and littered with fallen trees. We have many abandoned vehicles on the sides of roads with no one inside to tell the story of their misfortune.”
The local death toll associated with the storm has risen to three, including one fatality in Deltona, one in New Smyrna Beach and another reported by Volusia County in Ormond by the Sea.
In total, the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office dispatch center received more than 600 calls for people needing evacuations, Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said.
The sheriff’s office also received help from the National Guard in the form of five additional water rescue vehicles.
The community of Astor is still bracing for flooding. 
RIGHT ALONG THE RIVER — Water levels are high at the Riviera Resort and Marina boat launch at 2760 Botts Landing Road in DeLand. The marina, right along the St. Johns River, is bracing for flooding, as are many. The river is expected to crest record heights in the wake of Hurricane Ian.
“The river is expected to crest this evening into Saturday morning,” a bulletin from the National Weather Service wrote. “Levels will then very slowly decline, but remain in Major Flood Stage through early next week.”
Other areas of West Volusia, including DeLand and Deltona are also still experiencing flooding, and work is underway to bring water levels down.
The heavy flooding on Volusia County’s east side affected not just residents, but the Daytona International Speedway — much of which, as of 3 p.m., was still underwater — and the Edgewater Animal Shelter at 605 Mango Tree Drive.
“The county’s Animal Services Division, along with the Halifax Humane Society and the Southeast Volusia Humane Society successfully saved every single shelter animal’s life,” Captain said. “A total of 19 dogs and 71 cats. That’s nothing short of incredible.”
PREPARING — Riviera Resort and Marina residents, like Tammy Sills pictured in the forefront, prepare for high flood waters along the St. Johns River Sept. 30.
Trash pickup
As residents begin to clean up their own homes, each city has slightly different rules for trash pickup:
Volusia County
County officials ask that debris be separated in two different piles: one for vegetation and another for demolition materials like drywall and debris from homes and other structures.
Electronic waste can be disposed of at the Tomoka Landfill, 1990 Tomoka Farms Road in Port Orange, or the Volusia County Transfer Station, 3151 E. New York Ave.
DeLand, Deltona, DeBary, Orange City
Like Volusia County, the cities asks that vegetative debris be separated from construction and demolition debris. In the City of DeLand, vegetation does not need to be bagged, and in Deltona, DeBary and Orange City, vegetation will not be picked up if it is bagged.
All debris, including appliances, can be placed curbside, but cities asks that residents avoid placing debris too close to power poles or trees.
Road Closures
Fallen trees and floodwater have forced a number of roads to remain closed.
Click on the map below to view the latest reported road closures in Volusia County.
Check map above for latest updates!
UPDATE 11 A.M. SEPT. 30
Hurricane Ian isn’t bearing down on Volusia County any longer, but the effects of the storm will be felt for the days and weeks to come.
The storm, now back to hurricane strength after calming slightly to a tropical storm, is on track to batter South Carolina and northeast Florida.
Two deaths have been reported by the Volusia Sheriff’s Office in the fallout from Hurricane Ian. The first happened in Deltona yesterday, Sept. 29, the Sheriff’s Office said, when a 72-year-old man stepped outside to drain his pool and fell into a nearby canal. The Sheriff’s Office reported an additional death Sept. 30 when a New Smyrna Beach man is believed to have fallen and drowned inside of his own home.
Meanwhile, Volusia County crews are hard at work to handle the power outages, road closures and flooding left in the storm’s wake.
In the immediate aftermath of the storm, around 80 percent of all Volusia County electricity customers were estimated to be without power. A spokesperson for Duke Energy told The Beacon that crews are surveying damage now, and an estimate for when power will be restored will be available at 6 p.m. today, Sept. 30.
“Crews are out there today getting that information, and we will have an estimated time of restoration for Volusia County residents later today,” Duke Energy’s Audrey Stasko said.
Duke Energy customers can expect an update from the power company via text message.
VISIONS FROM DELAND — Downed branches block the roadway on Deerfoot Road on DeLand’s south side Sept. 29.
In Volusia County’s largest city, the historic rainfall dumped by Ian led to some serious flooding. One video, shared hundreds of times on social media, showed rainfall washing parts of the road away and empty cars stuck in the floodwater near the intersection of Newmark Drive and Howland Boulevard.
Mayor Heidi Herzberg said rain meters showed some parts of the city received as much as 13 inches of rain, and maybe more.
“It’s definitely an event that no one has ever experienced before in this area,” she told The Beacon. “The higher areas did OK. I drove around a little bit ago and there are fences down, sheds down, a few trees uprooted, but some of the lower lying areas definitely have flooding issues.”
In neighboring DeBary, City Manager Carmen Rosamonda recognized there would be challenges in the coming days, but he was thankful the city was spared the worst of the storm’s damage.
“The City of DeBary did fairly well considering we received 20 inches of rain in 24 hours,” he said. “Our proactive pre-storm approach of reducing the amount of water in our retention ponds and clearing storm water drains helped reduce damages and resulted in only having one home flood and no business properties flooded.”
Rosamonda continued, “I am proud of the continuous hard work that our emergency crews perform while maintaining our pumping stations and cleaning up our city streets.”
ORANGE CITY — Orange City resident Chris Sunter’s yard looks a little soaked in this photo from Sept. 29.
The same could be said for Orange City, where Mayor Gary Blair commended the hard work of the city’s crews.
“Orange city was lucky; the storm could have been much worse. While some people did suffer, overall we did pretty well,” he said. “I want to thank City staff who’ve been working during and after the storm to get our city back up and running.”
As of noon Sept. 30, the town’s post office was flooded and inaccessible. In addition to the Orange City Post Office, the DeLand and Daytona Beach locations are also closed.
“We can’t risk the safety of our workers,” Postmaster Enrica Lubrano said.
The offices hope to have mail delivered tomorrow.
In DeLand, like many other places in the county, downed trees and flooding made driving around the city dangerous. City officials are still urging people to stay indoors and off of roadways to allow clean-up crews and first responders to work.
Smaller towns like Lake Helen and Pierson weren’t spared damage from the storm.
Knocked-out power in Pierson also took out the town’s water system, but quick work by the town’s public works department and the town’s vice mayor ensured a backup generator was installed.
Volusia County will host a news conference at 3 p.m. today with countywide updates about storm damage and cleanup efforts. The conference will be broadcast on the county’s YouTube page, HERE, and on Facebook, HERE.
Click here for hurricane updates from yesterday, Sept. 29.
