West Orange Hurricane Preparedness Toolkit

Hurricane Irma is forcing thousands of South Florida residents from their homes, and many of those people are expected to drive north to the Orlando area for refuge. The region has more than 120,000 hotel rooms. The timing of the storm — arriving in the week after Labor Day tourists exited — could provide more availability for evacuees.

Orlando’s Rosen Hotels & Resorts have established “distress rates” in its seven resorts for Florida residents who are Irma evacuees. A spokeswoman says the company has established a wait list and is filling it as cancellations come in.

As a local to the Orlando area, now is the time to take action to protect your own home. Current forecasts for West Orange County project winds that could approach or exceed hurricane levels (≥ 74 mph), along with heavy rain, the possibility of tornadoes and flooding. Please read below for safety tips pertaining to West Orange communities and the surrounding region, and keep informed by following local television and radio broadcasts from a safe shelter.

Local Links & Information

• News 6 Hurricane Center: forecasts, preparation tips, emergency contact numbers, shelter/evacuation info, helpful links (Twitter)
• Duke Energy: safety reminders, how to report outages, storm response plan
• Orange County Guide to assist in emergency preparedness http://www.orangecountyfl.net/tabid/3761/default.aspx#.Wa_9CMiGNPb
• Orange County Emergency Communications http://www.orangecountyfl.net/EmergencySafety/EmergencyCommunications.aspx#.Wa_-_MiGNPY
• OC Disaster Preparedness http://www.orangecountyfl.net/EmergencySafety/DisasterPreparedness.aspx#.Wa__GciGNPY
• OC Emergency Medical Service http://www.orangecountyfl.net/EmergencySafety/EmergencyMedicalServices.aspx#.Wa__L8iGNPY
• OC Emergency Alerts & Mobile Apps http://www.orangecountyfl.net/Home/NewslettersAlerts.aspx#.Wa__TMiGNPY
• OC News & Information https://newsroom.ocfl.net/
• City of Winter Garden http://www.cwgdn.com/index.php
• City of Ocoee http://www.ocoee.org/79/Facebook
• City of Orlando http://www.cityoforlando.net/mayor/2017/09/get-prepared-for-hurricane-irma/
• Town of Windermere http://www.town.windermere.fl.us/alertView.aspx?alertid=838
• Town of Oakland http://oaklandfl.gov/AlertCenter.aspx

General Disaster Business Resources

• SBDC at UCF: http://floridasbdc.org/services/business-continuation/
• The Florida Virtual Business Emergency Operations Center:
  http://flvbeoc.org/
• Florida Chamber of Commerce:
  http://www.flchamber.com/florida-hurricane-information/
• Ready.gov: http://www.ready.gov/business
• Florida Division of Emergency Management: http://www.floridadisaster.org/DEMbusiness.asp
• SBA Disaster Assistance: https://www.sba.gov/loans-grants/see-what-sba-offers/sba-loan-programs/disaster-loans
• Florida Small Business Emergency Bridge Loan Program: http://www.floridadisasterloan.org/
• Institute for Home and Business Safety: https://disastersafety.org/ibhs-business-protection/ofb-ez-business-continuity/
• Preparemybusiness.org (SBA and Agility Recovery): http://www.preparemybusiness.org/
• Cybersecurity and disaster-related videos via Florida SBDC: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=cyber+security+disaster+related+florida+sbdc
• Cybersecurity-related resources – FBI Field Offices: https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices
• U.S. Secret Service Field Offices: https://www.secretservice.gov/contact/
• FBI CY-Watch (24-hours): Phone: 1-855-292-3937 Email: cywatch@ic.fbi.gov
• FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3): https://www.ic3.gov
• Florida Department of Law Enforcement: http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/cms/home.aspx
• Ponemon Institute http://www.ponemon.org/library
• U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team: www.us-cert.gov/ncas/tips
• FBI Cyber Crime: https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/cyber
• Federal Trade Commission Data Security: https://www.ftc.gov/datasecurity
• FBI Infragard: https://www.infragard.org/
• PhishMe: https://phishme.com/resources/infographics/
• Small Business Big Threat (SBA and Michigan SBDC): https://smallbusinessbigthreat.com/