{"id":207621,"date":"2026-03-06T17:33:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T17:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/207621\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T17:33:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T17:33:07","slug":"orange-county-couple-fielding-calls-from-americans-trying-to-get-out-of-the-war-torn-middle-east-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/207621\/","title":{"rendered":"Orange County couple fielding calls from Americans trying to get out of the war-torn Middle East \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alana Stott said she\u2019s slept just a few hours since Saturday.<\/p>\n

The mother of three from Rancho Mission Viejo is a security expert who has been fielding WhatsApp and social media requests from Americans stranded in the Middle East seeking to get back to the United States.<\/a> The calls and requests have been non-stop since the U.S. first launched its strike against Iran<\/a>, she said, and by Thursday, she guessed she\u2019d fielded more than a hundred.<\/p>\n

Most of the people calling, Stott said, are Americans who were either traveling on vacation or business or are college students in Qatar, Kuwait, the Arab Emirates, Iraq and Israel.<\/p>\n

Stott and her husband, Dean, who is former British Special Forces, operate SCI Security LLC, and are specialists in security evacuations. With at least 15 years of experience, they have helped hundreds of people flee from devolving and dangerous conflicts, Stott said. In some cases, they are in the trenches with those they are rescuing and in this case, they are working remotely, assisting people in getting home, she said.<\/p>\n

They also have a foundation, the Blue Rose Foundation, that works against human trafficking. And Dean Stott co-hosted the Netflix show \u201cToughest Forces on Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Alana<\/p>\n

Alana Stott is receiving her Member of the Order of the British Empire from King Charles for services to vulnerable women and children. (Photo courtesy of Alana Stott)\n<\/p>\n

\"Alana<\/p>\n

Alana and Dean Stott, of Rancho Mission Viejo, are helping Americans get out of the Middle East. They operate SCI Security LLC., a security company with which they have helped many hundreds flee war-torn areas. (Photos courtesy of Alana Stott)\n<\/p>\n

\"Alana<\/p>\n

Alana and Dean Stott, of Rancho Mission Viejo, are helping Americans get out of the Middle East. They operate SCI Security LLC., a security company with which they have helped many hundreds flee war-torn areas. (Photos courtesy of Alana Stott)\n<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 3<\/p>\n

Alana Stott is receiving her Member of the Order of the British Empire from King Charles for services to vulnerable women and children. (Photo courtesy of Alana Stott)\n<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to juggle as much as I can and make sure I get sleep where I can,\u201d Stott said. \u201cI\u2019m not very good at saying \u2018No,\u2019 to people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of her work the last few days has been gathering intel on available flights, safe routes to airports and transportation options across the region from reliable, known people, Stott said.<\/p>\n

The U.S. State Department estimates about 1 million Americans are in the Middle East, with thousands actively trying to depart amid widespread flight cancellations and airspace closures.<\/a>\u00a0 About 20,000 Americans have returned home, an official said Thursday, adding 8,500 alone arrived on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Officials have reported that there are additional U.S.-affiliated charter flights<\/a> expected to depart from the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause we\u2019ve done it quite a few times, we can see what happening and what\u2019s moving,\u201d Stott said, adding that along with challenges of the vast geographic region, there is the \u201cpanic and fear\u201d among people there who are also dealing with confusing and conflicting information.<\/p>\n

The Stotts aren\u2019t newcomers to helping people evacuate. They first happened into it, Stott said, when her husband was in Libya in 2011 and she was already working in security and the\u00a0Arab Spring protests escalated into a civil war against Muammar Qaddafi\u2019s 42-year rule.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was our first taste of government collapse and people being left in countries,\u201d she said. \u201cI would be home doing the logistics and planning, and any bookings we needed to do. It was more intelligence-based, and he was doing the groundwork.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stott said the couple also helped people leave Afghanistan amid the tumult when the United States pulled out, and from Israel following the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas. \u201cWhenever something like this happens, we have to move quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

One religious studies group the couple helped return home to Orange County from Israel now has people trying again to get back, Stott said. And an Orange County couple and their friend were in a security bunker in Jerusalem on Thursday, waiting to get word of a flight out, she said.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s making it harder this time, Stott said, is that her husband isn\u2019t \u201cboots on the ground,\u201d so all their assistance is from afar.<\/p>\n

Most of those she\u2019s talked to have said they are being well taken care of, Stott added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m speaking to people in Dubai and the U.E., and in general, they\u2019re treating them very well,\u201d she said. \u201cIn the hotels, they\u2019re doing everything they can to keep them comfortable, but a lot of people are sitting in airports. Or they\u2019ve been moved to Oman and Egypt without real plans and no flights booked.\u201d<\/p>\n

So far, Stott said, they successfully helped some people fly out of Dubai to Munich and London. In those cases, they were booked on several flights before they actually got on an outgoing plane.<\/p>\n

The group from Orange County that\u2019s hunkered down in Jerusalem, Stott said, nearly got talked into taking a car with people they didn\u2019t know to Egypt.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy advice was that, \u2018You\u2019re safe where you are right now,\u2019\u201d she said, happy they listened to her.<\/p>\n

By midday Thursday, Stott said she was seeing some flights becoming available.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s changing every minute,\u201d she said. \u201cI had one flight canceled, but you\u2019ve got to be really quick.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alana Stott said she\u2019s slept just a few hours since Saturday. The mother of three from Rancho Mission…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,7,179,1703,2582,100,611,13,136],"class_list":["post-207621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-california","tag-community","tag-military","tag-national-politics","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-politics","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}