POLK COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – Phones at the Hilton Garden Inn near the Lakeland Linder Airport are ringing off the hook, even though it has no vacancies.

“It took us about 9 1/2 hours to get here yesterday,” Bruce Neill told News Channel 8. Bruce and his wife Shelly grabbed their dogs and left their home in Key Largo knowing it may not be there when they get back. “It probably won’t make it through much category 2 storm, so a three or four, everything will probably be gone,” he said.

Bruce and his wife Shelly grabbed their dogs and left their home in Key Largo knowing it may not be there when they get back. “It probably won’t make it through much category 2 storm, so a three or four, everything will probably be gone,” he said.

“It probably won’t make it through much category 2 storm, so a three or four, everything will probably be gone,” Bruce said. “The storm is so powerful, so huge and widespread, I just wanted to not be there with a small baby, with no electricity. So we left.”

Joey Hughes said he drove from Key West to rent a room at the Hilton Garden Inn in Lakeland.

“I have a room for tomorrow because they are booked here in Tampa. I reserved one in Mobile, Alabama also,” Hughes said.

Hughes along with many others are trying to stay out of Irma’s path, but one after another, people are finding rooms are sold out.

“Nonstop, nonstop people are calling and people are desperate looking for places,” Carlos Adorno with Hilton Garden Inn told News Channel 8. “Unfortunately right now the area of Polk County, mostly all of the hotels are completely sold out. We are referring people all the way down to Orlando or North Orlando now.”

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