Evacuees find shelter from the storm in cut-rate Orlando hotels

ORLANDO, Fla. — Ruby Thacher didn’t have to be told twice, but she was.

First her daughter in South Carolina told the 78-year-old what she already knew: She couldn’t ride this one out.

Then, it was a Citrus County sheriff mandate that she and husband Rex, 80, and every other person living in a camper, trailer or manufactured home had to evacuate this Gulf Coast county north of Tampa by 8 a.m. Tuesday.

Hurricane Milton intensified in just a few hours Monday from a Category 2 to a 5, the National Hurricane Center said, before dipping to a Category 4 overnight.

Worried about Milton, Ruby’s daughter had searched the web and booked her parents a bargain on I-Drive in Orlando — the four-star Rosen Centre which not only offered “hurricane distress rates” but pet-friendly rooms so Ruby and Rex could bring Lulu and Zoey, their dogs.

The couple was among an estimated 1,000 families who opted to seek shelter from the monster storm at a Rosen Hotel, said Jennifer Rice-Palmer, director of guest contact. She said the hotel and convention center resort offered discounted rates to hurricane evacuees as low as $69 a night, not including taxes, and set aside blocks of rooms for stranded airline crews, power line workers, college students and residents of a nursing home in Naples.

“For every room [reservation] we’ve had to cancel due to a convention or something not being able to get into the area, we’re refilling that room with somebody who’s impacted by this storm,” Rice-Palmer said. “We are honored we’ve been able to help so many.”

Rosen Hotels & Resorts has long offered its rooms at discounted rates to Floridians fleeing hurricanes.

Many more evacuees are expected to arrive today.

Hurricane-beleaguered Largo residents Tara and Nick Santos rolled into the Rosen Centre lobby Monday with kids, Scarlett, 6, and Cole, 3, hoping to frame their evacuation as a vacation rather than an escape from potential disaster in their Pinellas County town.

“It’s part of living where we live,” said Nick, 36. “But it could be a big, scary thing for them.”

They spent part of the afternoon at the resort pool, then went out for dinner.

They may go today to Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum, their mother said.

About 20 or so family and friends are expected to join them, including Tara’s sister who lost her home in Hurricane Helene.

“It’s been a long couple weeks,” Tara said.

Robert Agrusa, president and CEO of the Central Florida Hotel and Lodging Association, said other Orlando hotels also cut room rates as counties on Florida’s Gulf Coast issued evacuation orders to save lives from a storm that also may steamroll Central Florida, though the danger here is far less than closer to the coast.

Like Rosen, some adjusted policies to be more pet-friendly so families don’t worry about leaving pets behind, Agrusa said.

Rosen rooms that usually cost $129 a night were discounted to $69. Rosen also offered its $200-a-night rooms at Rosen Plaza for $99; $220 rooms at Rosen Centre for $119; and $250 rooms at Rosen Shingle Creek for $139 a night. Prices do not include taxes.

Some evacuees at the Rosen Centre said they were confident they’d be safer and more comfortable at the hotel than at home.

Others were happy just to be out of stop-and-slow traffic.

“We should have been here in two hours but it took us four,” said Robin Allsup, who traveled from Tampa Bay with her support dog Mango. “It was mostly idling and tapping the brakes then every once in a while we’d get up to 30 or 40. Everybody just trying to get out.”

She said she never considered staying put.

“It’s a Category 5 and home is pretty much going to take a direct hit,” Allsup said.

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