LAKE FAIRVIEW SHORES, Fla. – Orange County Fire Rescue reportedly helped get a family to shelter early Thursday as Hurricane Milton flooded Lake Fairview Shores on its way out to sea.
The family of four was the subject of a water rescue from out of the 2700 block of Hambleton Avenue, according to the fire department.
News 6 Anchor Ryan Welch visited the neighborhood and spoke with OCFR Lt. Brandon Allen, who said that nobody else wanted to evacuate.
“There is flood water, I’d say about knee-deep, affecting a few streets in this neighborhood. We’ve made contact with everybody that we could in this neighborhood and right now nobody wanted to evacuate, so we’re still going to check back in the next hour or two as the water continues to rise and the weather still is affecting us,” Allen said.
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Welch was told that everyone in the neighborhood was safe. Our cameras were rolling as the flood waters gradually began to subside, retreating to the sides of the street and further.
Allen described the heightened workload for first responders as hurricane-related missions stacked atop otherwise unrelated calls for service.
“It’s extremely busy. Besides just the hurricane calls we’re running right now, just the regular 911 calls that we receive on a daily basis are still happening. People are still having medical emergencies, we’re still having house fires unrelated to the hurricane, so having the special teams like the Swift Water Team out here being able to handle some of these more dangerous calls is huge for us,” Allen said. “(...)It seems like every hurricane that we respond to now, a new place opens up as a flood hazard. The first couple years it was kind of in the Hope Circle area, during Ian we had it on the east side of town and this is kind of a new area for us when it comes to flood conditions so, every storm I think we learn a little bit more as far as what we need to do.”
For crucial guidance on what to do before, during and after a flash flood, click here.
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