A longtime Port Orange Police employee has died from flu complications, the department said Wednesday.

Lisa M. Ferrara-Daly, "you were a wonderful mother, friend, and co-worker and you'll be missed dearly," police said in a post on its Facebook page.

Police say Daly was an animal control officer with the department for many years before she transitioned into another position.

Wednesday people from local agencies gathered and discussed the severity of the virus in Volusia County.

"This is the worst flu season we've seen in a long time we're seeing about double of what we usually see in emergency room visits," said Paul Rehme, Volusia County Director of Disease Control.

This flu season has been deadly nationwide and "continues to be particularly challenging," says Dr. Alicia Fry, the Epidemiology and Prevention Branch Chief, Influenza Division, at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "...Right now, we see influenza activity in almost all of the states, which is really pretty unusual for us," she said.

Remhe said these deaths are hard to track, but the health department is monitoring them by checking death certificates that include flu or pneumonia as the cause.

Within the last couple weeks health officials started checking and testing ICU patients for the flu as well. But Rheme said the reason why there are more flu cases currently is still a mystery for national health officials.

"They really do not know at this point and time, what they'll do as we get through the season, a month or two later, they'll go back and scrub all the data and try to figure out if they can why it happened this year," Rehme said.

Dr. Timothy Hendrix, Florida Hospital Centra Care's medical director, said Wednesday that this season's flu deaths were in older adults and people sick with the flu who had underlying conditions.

"Nationwide, we are anticipating more deaths from the flu, but let me emphasize that it is because so many people are sick with the flu this year," he said.

Ten children died from flu complications nationwide from Jan. 28-Feb. 3, the CDC said. The agency says about 60 of every 100,000 people are being hospitalized from the flu.

Rehme said the number of flu cases should hopefully decrease within the next couple months. Daly's time was cut short, but her co-workers said she'll be missed dearly by all of them.

Local officials said they are also monitoring and investigating any outbreaks at high-risk populations such as nursing homes and schools.

The CDC is also warning that this deadly flu season may not have reached its peak yet. Health officials say keep washing your hands and get a flu shot.