Winter Park suffers storm damage during Fourth of July holiday

On a day when Winter Park and Maitland residents celebrated America’s birthday and watched fireworks in the sky, Mother Nature put on a display of her own. 

A violent storm hit the Winter park area Tuesday, July 4 — bringing large tree branches crashing down that toppled over lampposts and street signs throughout the downtown area. 

The storm started around Lake Mizell and traveled northwest toward the downtown Park Avenue area and Palmer Avenue.  

“There were people in the other corners of the city that barely saw rain,” Winter Park City Manager Randy Knight said. “It was very localized how it went through.” 

Employees and customers at the 310 Park South restaurant saw the damage firsthand. A limb from a nearby tree fell and landed on a sidewalk umbrella, knocking it over including the concrete base. 

“It was just a domino effect,” said Brook Hayden, the manager of the restaurant. “It was quite the experience from what I hear. I was busy at home protecting my dog.” 

Hayden’s home just a mile away caught the brunt of the storm, as well. An entire tree came down on her front lawn. The winds were “manhandling” her wrought iron patio furniture. 

“It was whipping through,” she said. “It was forceful enough.” 

Knight said the city lost about 30 trees as a result of the storm. One fell across Phelps Avenue in a residential neighborhood, while a large portion of a tree fell across a northeast-bound lane on Orange Avenue next to the old Progress Point property, holding up traffic. The weight of the limbs toppled over a nearby lamppost, as well. 

“It seemed to be more devastating on July 4 than Matthew was,” Mayor Steve Leary said. 

There was plenty of rain, too: Four inches fell during a storm July 1, and 3 inches fell July 4. It brought the water levels in the Winter Park canals high enough that Dinky Dock was closed, Knight said. 

“The water level was so high that boats couldn’t get under the bridges, like under Aloma,” Knight said. 

Power took a hit in the eastern part of the city, as the Via neighborhood suffered an outage that lasted until 11 a.m. the next day. 

“It projected heavy thunderstorms but not like that,” Knight said. “That was a surprise.” 

Electric Utility Director Daniel D’Alessandro said the city hopes to improve its communication with residents after storms have taken place. 

“We need to do some improving in communication back to our residents,” he said. “That could have been much better. I have things underway to get that better.”