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‘It looks like a river:’ Heavy rains cause flooding in Orlando’s Thornton Park neighborhood

Viewer photos show partially submerged vehicles

ORLANDO, Fla. – Heavy rainfall on Sunday caused some streets in Orlando’s Thornton Park neighborhood to flood, causing headaches for residents.

The storms that rolled through brought heavy rainfall over a period of a few hours.

Radar estimates there were between 2-4 inches of rain falling.

Rainfall totals for Central Florida (Copyright 2024 by WKMG ClickOrlando - All rights reserved.)

Meanwhile, reports of up to 4.5 inches of rain came in this evening for the downtown Orlando area that was under a flood warning through 7 p.m. This was a very high amount of rain over a short period of time which resulted in a lot of areas that ended up flooding.

“It looks like a river, in just 10-15 minutes. I couldn’t get out of my car,” said resident Martha Torres.

Luckily Izabella Goolsby and her mom were walking nearby and noticed Martha waving for help. Izabella came to Torres’ rescue.

“I opened the door and I was like ‘come with me. Hold on me because she had a bad knee. You can come out slowly. We’ll come out here and set you down safe and sound,’” Goolsby said.

News 6 reporter Jarell Baker shared photos of a flooded parking lot in the area of Jackson Street and Summerlin Avenue.

Heavy rain caused streets to flood in the Thornton Park neighborhood of Orlando on Sunday. (Copyright 2024 by WKMG ClickOrlando - All rights reserved.)
Heavy rains cause flooding in Orlando’s Thornton Park neighborhood. (Copyright 2024 by WKMG ClickOrlando - All rights reserved.)

Sunday’s rain left several streets near Summerlin Avenue waist deep in flood water. It also left a parking lot of Orange County vehicles at 701 E. South St. partially submerged.

Flooded vehicles on South Street (Copyright 2024 by WKMG ClickOrlando - All rights reserved.)

News 6 viewers also shared photos of vehicles partially submerged in the streets in the same area of Thornton Park.

Heavy rain caused streets to flood in the Thornton Park neighborhood of Orlando on Sunday. (Copyright 2024 by WKMG ClickOrlando - All rights reserved.)

“It was a blessing. A blessing because that situation was very scary and very bad,” said Torres.

More rain is expected on Labor Day, News 6 meteorologist Samara Cokinos said.

By noon a few showers will begin to bubble up closer to the coast before spreading out across the interior into the afternoon and evening. Storms will be capable of producing heavy rainfall that could add up to 1-2 inches rather quickly and possibly lead to localized flooding in spots that exceed a couple of inches of rain over a short period of time.

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About the Author
Jacob Langston headshot

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.

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