Hurricane Dorian may spare Central Florida, but residents still preparing for the worst

Aug. 31--Hurricane Dorian may spare Florida's coast from a direct impact, but the good news of its newest possible trajectory didn't stop Central Floridians Saturday from boarding up their homes and businesses and hitting stores for last-minute supplies.

"It's like washing your car: You wash your car, it rains. You don't, it doesn't," Wendy Fenech, a lighting designer in Orlando, said as her brother boarded up the windows of her Colonialtown North home Saturday morning.

Her home was one of only a handful in her neighborhood that was boarded. She said she took the extra precaution "just in case."

"I'm just lucky my brother's a general contractor," she said.

At grocery and department stores around Central Florida, shoppers continued to stock up on hurricane supplies.

At the Publix on Edgewater Drive in College Park, shelves were missing some items and workers were busy restocking. Signs asked customers to limit how much bottled water they bought and to limit bread purchases to two loaves per customer.

In Lake County, shoppers at Rural King in Leesburg loaded generators onto their carts.

Clarissa Curtis, an associate at Ace Hardware at the plaza on East Colonial Drive in Orlando, said people seemed more relaxed at her store Saturday than over the past week. They have sold out of many hurricane items, such as D batteries and plywood locks, but stacks of water remained piled in front of the shop.

Virginia Strait, 62, stopped by Ace for one last errand before returning to her Orlando home to prepare for boarding up the windows with a friend. She said she's still nervous the storm may have devastating impacts on Central Florida.

"If it doesn't turn and go up the coast, it's going to be as bad as [Hurricane] Andrew over Miami and Homestead," said Strait, who works for attorney John Morgan. "This is a powerful, powerful storm. So if it doesn't turn, we're in for a world of trouble."

Orange County leaders are preparing for a direct impact, though the latest models of Hurricane Dorian suggest the monster storm will move away from Central Florida.

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"We are cautiously optimistic based upon the most recent track of the storm," Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said during an update Saturday outside the Emergency Operations Center in Winter Park. "However, we still have the responsibility to ensure that, should the storm track change, we are ready and prepared to deal with whatever the impacts may be in Central Florida here."

Demings said emergency management officials will continue to review plans to make certain they are relevant. The most critical time for Orange County will be between about 12:02 Monday and 8 a.m. Tuesday, Demings said.

"Those are the most critical times for us for the storm track itself," he said. Another storm update is planned for Sunday afternoon.

Interim Emergency Manager Keith Kotch echoed Demings' caution about the predicted storm path.

"It is a powerful storm, 145 mph winds, which is a little under a Category 5 capability," Kotch said. "We do want to watch it. It is not over. It could still change. ... We still need to stay vigilant and prepare."

Phyllis Tuell, third-generation owner of Stewart Jewelry on Edgewater Drive in College Park, had high school chums to thank for her peace of mind Saturday. Gilfredo Ares, 69, and James Devine, 70, used cordless drills to cover the jewelry store's showcase front windows with plywood sheets before the strong outer bands of Hurricane Dorian arrive next week.

The lifelong friends have known Tuell since they were classmates at Edgewater High School in the class of 1969 -- when she was Phyllis Stewart. The men covered her store windows in 2017, too, when Hurricane Irma blew into town.

Though the latest forecast predicts the monster storm will cling to Florida's east coastline, Tuell said her friends' effort is appreciated because hurricanes can be unpredictable.

"They're big glass windows. Why not [protect them]," she said. "Even if it never makes it here, there will be winds and crap flying everywhere."

Tuell said she has a duty to customers who have trusted her with polishing and repairing their keepsakes. As owner of the building, she also wants to protect her tenants, including a picture-and-art framing business next door.

Randy Jones, who lives across from Park Lake near east Colonial Drive and owns Balloon World on Mills Avenue, had help from his grandson, Christian Jones, on Saturday, affixing plywood to his home and business -- hopefully, he said, for the last time. Randy Jones had just purchased storm-resistant shutters, which are supposed to arrive Tuesday, too late to install before the effects of Dorian are felt across Central Florida.

The front of Randy Jones' house is "all glass and there's no houses to protect it from something coming across the lake," he said.

He has boarded up for most major storms in his 28 years living in his Park Lake Street home, he said.

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"He's seen a lot," Christian Jones said. "He's one of those people who likes to be prepared."

In Lake County, Karen Wer, of Fruitland Park, and her mother Kathy Wer joined about a half dozen other Lake County residents filling sandbags in the 90 degree sun at the Solid Waste Residential Convenience Center in Lady Lake Saturday afternoon.

The residents anticipated the storm may still be a severe rain and flooding event, even if Florida is not struck directly. Karen Wer said she was taking no chances, filling 20 sandbags and placing them in her SUV.

"With the cone being that uncertain, you never know," she said.

Five Florida counties have issued voluntary evacuations ahead of the storm: Osceola, Palm Beach, St. Lucie, Glades and Hendry counties. The only mandatory evacuations as of Saturday are for the barrier islands in Brevard and Martin counties, which are set to begin Sunday.

At the press conference, Demings said county offices will be closed for business Monday and Tuesday.

"We will evaluate whether we will remain closed on Wednesday or not based on the path of the storm," he said.

If the storm keeps tracking east, the county needs to be ready for coastal evacuees.

All county shelters in east Orange will open as planned at 8 a.m. Sunday, though some west Orange shelters may not open.

He said the county has distributed 150,000 sand bags.

Demings said he was assured by Gov. Ron DeSantis that fuel will be available here and throughout Florida.

He urged people with non-emergency questions and needs to call the county's 311 hotline and not 911.

Gas was still flowing at the Wawa station at Orange Blossom Trail and East Colonial Drive on Saturday morning where Anita Singh, 46, said she was filling up an extra canister "just in case" stations run out.

Singh, who has lived in Florida for 18 years and owns PS Freight System, a shipping company, said the fluctuating forecasts have left her unsure how to prepare.

"One minute, it's telling you it's coming here. [The] next minute saying it's moving or drifting," Singh said. "I'm just trying to ... prepare for the worst but hope for the best.

Staff writers Leslie Postal and Stephen Dowell contributed to this story.

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