A FAMILY was forced to flee Florida - or face being stranded - as Hurricane Dorian hit.

Five people were killed as the hurricane battered the Bahamas earlier this week.

It is now moving over America’s east coast.

Neil, Ellen, Euan and Noah Kendall, of Seaton, were spending three weeks in Orlando visiting theme parks.

Neil, 47, said: “We flew out on August 21 and were due to fly back later this week but we ended coming back a couple of days early.

“We were following an American government app called FEMA and that was keeping us up to date with the situation.

“Things happened very quickly in the end and we had just about one and a half hours to get our suitcases packed and get to the airport before it went into lock down.”

Mr Kendall, an IT consultant who works across Cumbria, said: “We asked earlier in the week if we should be worried about the hurricane but we were told it was normal for Florida and if we stayed away from the windows we should be fine. At that stage we weren’t overly worried. I think the British sense of ‘everything will be fine’ mentality kicked in.”

But at the weekend, the Kendalls visited NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre and were shocked to find they were practically the only ones there.

“The roads were really quiet,” said Mr Kendall.

“When we arrived at Kennedy there was hardly anyone there. The car park was empty. The staff were busy wrapping everything in cling film ahead of the hurricane. They were getting it all prepared. After we left they locked the site down.”

The Kendalls returned to their villa and waited for news. The following day they went to Universal Studios.

While they were there, the Kendalls received several messages from FEMA about contacting their airlines.

“We got in touch with Virgin Atlantic and they told us to prepare for evacuation. We returned to the villa briefly to pack and then set off for the airport. We had very little time. It was a case of just throwing everything into our suitcases. We got to the airport and everyone was in the same boat. People were dropping off hire cars and trying to get checked in.

“It was a massive rush - a scramble and there was a thunderstorm. They opened all the toll roads We had 30 minutes to spare before the plane took off. We definitely made the right call.”