The parks are set to re-open today following the severe storm
A Brit working at Walt Disney World in Florida has shared an update on the parks after Hurricane Milton hit the resort.
Terrifying footage showed the severe storm battering the site in Florida, US, on Wednesday (9 October) as the Sunshine State suffered from the destructive weather.
At least eight people have died, with millions left without power after many were told to evacuate as others sought shelter indoors.
As one British tourist told LADbible of the drastic measures she was told to take before the hurricane hit, another Brit has shared his experience whilst working at the popular destination this week.
Ashton Price form Worcester is currently living in Orlando and works as a Cast Member at Florida’s Walt Disney World.
Describing how ‘mass panic buying broke out’ following the weather warnings, the 19-year-old and his roommates prepared by cooking plenty of food in case of power loss, charging up their devices, and having ‘buckets of water at hand’.
He said yesterday morning: “ At around 2am-5am, the storm was really bad, gusts of around 120mph were making my windows bend and flex in and out. At one point, I sheltered in the bathroom away from windows as it seemed they could have given way at any moment, thankfully they didn’t.”
Disney closed its parks by the end of Wednesday and are set to re-open today.
The 19-year-old revealed that the company told him and his colleagues to ‘adhere to weather warnings’ before it all cleared up and became ‘very clear and beautiful’.
And ahead of the re-opening announcement, he explained cast members were ‘assessing the situation on whether it’s safe to’ do so.
With days of work having passed with the parks in Florida closed, Price explained the situation with their pay is ‘something that gets decided later on’.
He claimed: “For previous closures like this one, cast members have received pay.”
With many tourists excited at the prospect of returning to the Disney parks today, Price had a bit of a plea to guests: “Be kind and patient to Cast Members at Disney and Team Members at Universal as they are likely to know just as much as visiting guests.
“Cast will be working as hard as possible to get the parks reopen as soon as it’s safe to do so.”
An update on Disney World’s weather page reads: “We’re grateful Walt Disney World Resort weathered the storm. Walt Disney World theme parks and Disney Springs will reopen on Friday, October 11 for the scheduled operating hours. Our hearts are with our fellow Floridians who were impacted by this storm.”
