Orange County Fire Rescue and National Guard help evacuate flooded extended stay hotel

InTown Suites Extended Stay Select is off of Lee Road

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – The National Guard and the Orange County Fire Rescue helped evacuate residents at a flooded extended stay hotel off of Lee Road on Thursday.

Hurricane Ian, the fifth strongest to every strike the United States, dumped heavy rain across Central Florida where flooded streets were widespread.

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The Guard was able to drive a large transport truck across the flooded InTown Suites Extended Stay Select parking lot to help rescue some of the stranded residents on the first floor, including some with children and special needs, according to a News 6 crew on the scene.

National Guard helps rescue residents at an extended stay hotel in Orlando (Copyright 2022 by WKMG ClickOrlando - All rights reserved.)

OCFR also walked an inflatable boat across the flooded lot to access the stranded residents. They were able to walk them back across the flooded lot in the boat and into waiting vehicles that transported them to local shelters.

At the time of this report, 75 people have been rescued so far from the flooded hotel.

The flooded InTown Suites Extended Stay Select hotel off of Lee Road (Copyright 2022 by WKMG ClickOrlando - All rights reserved.)

If you are still in need of a shelter, you can find the nearest one in our county-by-county list.


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About the Authors:

Jacob joined ClickOrlando.com in 2022. He spent 19 years at the Orlando Sentinel, mostly as a photojournalist and video journalist, before joining Spectrum News 13 as a web editor and digital journalist in 2021.

Erik von Ancken anchors and reports for News 6 and is a two-time Emmy award-winning journalist in the prestigious and coveted "On-Camera Talent" categories for both anchoring and reporting.

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