Orange County Fire Rescue evacuates residents from rising flood waters

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Orange County Fire Rescue helped evacuate numerous people due to rising flood waters Thursday.

Crews in the Rio Pinar area, off Econlockhatchee Trail and Lake Underhill Road, used boats to carry people to safety after Hurricane Ian put much of the region underwater.

[TRENDING: SATELLITE, TRACK, MODELS: Tropical Storm Ian aims for Atlantic after swamping southwest Florida | Ian: County-by-county impacts in Central Florida | Become a News 6 Insider (it’s free!)]

One photo shared on Twitter shows a crew member carrying someone through knee-level water.

Over 100 people living in an Orlando nursing home were also evacuated Thursday, after water got into the building.

News 6′s Jerry Askin was at the Avante in Orlando, where high waters got into the building, flooding the first floor.

Video shows responders using boats to get people out of the building and into safety.

OCFR said they were able to get 106 residents out of the nursing home. Of them, 50 were taken to emergency shelters and five were taken to a local hospital.

“We requested the resources; the assets then in the meantime, we set up a game plan of who we were going to move first and where we were moving them to,” said OCFR Assistant Fire Chief Renee Stone.

Responders also rescued at 81 people from their flooded building at the Dockside condo apartment in Orlando and took them to an emergency shelter.

Anissia Sierra said she woke up to knee-high floodwaters at her Orlando condo community Thursday morning.

Her condo complex off of Curry Ford Road looked more like a river. We watched for hours as the Orlando Fire Department and emergency crews used boats to rescue more than a hundred people at the complex from the high water.

News 6 saw families and even small children being helped after floodwaters rushed into their homes, with one woman carrying what appears to be her small child. Many of them got on Lynx buses bound for Orange County shelters.

“It was like I was calling 911 like who? Where are they? I need someone to come and rescue,” said Sierra.  “I was really scared when water started coming like crazy.”

The storm has produced historic flooding in areas across Central Florida.

Here are the roadways Orlando residents should avoid:

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