It could be the worst Disney World has been affected by a hurricane since Irma in 2017
Hurricane Milton has hit Florida and the official advice lined up for people in the way is to get out.
The dangerous weather event has resulted in a loss of life and caused serious damage to Florida, with homes destroyed and people losing access to electricity and running water.
According to the Florida Division of Emergency Management, 125 homes were destroyed before Hurricane Milton even made landfall, while power had been cut off to around two million homes and businesses.
With people told to get the f**k out of dodge lest they be hit by a hurricane, Florida’s Disney World has also had to shut down.
CBS News reported that Disney World started shutting down its Orlando parks in phases, starting from 1pm local time yesterday (9 October) and likely to stay closed throughout today.
Footage of Hurricane Milton hitting the Disney resorts in Florida has been posted online by people staying at Disney World, and it doesn’t seem like the nicest holiday destination at the moment.
When it rains it pours for Disney, as according to Forbes, the investment bank Goldman Sachs has predicted that the company is set to lose out on between $150 million and $200 million (£114 million to £152 million) this financial quarter.
That’s predicted to be the cost to Disney’s parks department due to the closures and disruptions from Hurricane Milton, and visitors to Disney World are predicted to drop by six percent due to the weather.
Forbes says that if those predictions are accurate, then Milton would be the most damaging storm for Disney since 2017’s Hurricane Irma.
They write that the previous hurricane cost Disney’s parks department about $100 million (£76 million) due to a drop in attendance and having to cancel cruises.
Elsewhere in Florida, Universal Orlando Resort said that they’d be closing early on Wednesday and remain shut all throughout today, but they anticipate being able to open up tomorrow (11 October) with normal operating hours.
They said anyone who had tickets for the resort during times shut down due to Hurricane Milton would be able to use them on other dates up to 18 December.
People stuck in Disney parks in Orlando posted that they’d been sent lunch boxes, and a ‘hurricane team’ had been deployed to keep guests comfortable.
@justthemeparks Hurricane Milton is here at Walt Disney World! We’re staying safe in our room at the Art of Animation & hope everyone else in Florida is safe too! We’d also like to say a huge thank you to all the cast members who are working through the hurricane and those who kept the Magic Kingdom open this morning! The small queue’s definitely helped distract us! ❤️😂 Trust us to time our vacation during a hurricane! 🌀 #hurricanemilton #wdw #waltdisneyworld #artofanimation #disneyparks #themeparks ♬ original sound – justthemeparks
A British woman who was staying elsewhere in Orlando said she’d been trying to stock up on the essentials and there weren’t a lot of torches left for people to buy to cope with electricity blackouts.
She summed up a letter guests at her hotel had received which ‘basically said keep the patio furniture inside, you’re self-catering, you’re on you’re own’.
LADbible has contacted Disney for a comment.
