Hurricane Ian and Its Walt Disney World Impact: A Summary
The Greater Orlando area has just experienced one of its most turbulent weeks ever.
Hurricane Ian left 2.4 million people without power during its initial American landfall, and it hasn’t finished yet. As I type this, it’s targeting South Carolina’s coastline.
Photo: NY Times
Walt Disney World and other Central Florida theme parks closed due to the Hurricane and are now dealing with its aftermath.
Here’s a brief summary of Hurricane Ian and its aftermath at Walt Disney World.
Early Warning Signals
On September 24th, Tropical Storm Ian broached the Caribbean Islands, causing torrential downpours throughout this region.
Meteorologists determined that the course for Ian would take it through Cuba and, later, the Florida coastline.
Even worse, signs pointed toward the storm gaining hurricane strength before reaching Cuba.
In hindsight, that belief undersold the severity of the danger. When Hurricane Ian approached Cuba, its wind velocity had increased to 125 miles per hour.
Image credit: Str/Xinhua/Zuma
Ian had turned into a Category 3 hurricane, knocking out the power for the entire Cuban population.
While Cuba has proven susceptible to hurricanes over the years, the island-wide power outage is rare bordering on unprecedented.
Since Key West, Florida, resides only 94 miles from Cuba, Hurricane Ian’s arrival in the United States was mere hours away.
Even worse, while Hurricane Ian remained at sea, it continued to gain velocity.
I’m not going into all the specifics about what happened next, as it’s too fresh and horrifying for many of us, myself included.
However, we do know that Hurricane Ian achieved Category 5 status with consistent winds approaching 160 miles per hour after it reached the continental United States.
This level of wind pressure has proven extremely rare throughout the past century.
Ian technically reached landfall as a Category 4, but it continued to gain power due to its ferocity and the odd structure of Florida’s coastline.
305 PM EDT 28 Sep — Hurricane #Ian has made landfall as an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane near Cayo Costa, Florida with maximum sustained winds at 150 mph. The minimum pressure from Air Force Reconnaissance Hurricane Hunters was 940 mb.
Latest: https://t.co/tnOTyfORCw pic.twitter.com/O3agPDOZHk
— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) September 28, 2022
At one point, The Weather Channel listed its wind velocity as the third-most powerful ever tracked.
As the storm knocked out the power and caused historic levels of flooding, all Central Florida residents and park officials could do was watch and hope.
Hurricane Ian Reaches Orlando
Hot water powers storms, while land slows them and reduces their force.
This natural law explains why the Florida coast has suffered substantially more than the inland parts of Florida like Walt Disney World.
The winds that had once reached Category 5 status slowed at an exponential progression. By the time the storm reached the area, it had fallen in scale and categorization.
7 PM EDT 9/28 Tropical Cyclone Update for Hurricane #Ian. A University of Florida Coastal Monitoring Program wind tower recently reported sustained winds of 64 mph (103 km/h) with a wind gust of 104 mph (167 km/h). For more: https://t.co/tW4KeGdBFb pic.twitter.com/Og3APw5wGE
— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) September 28, 2022
That’s technically not even Category 1, although it was just one reading. Most weather reports at the time tracked Hurricane Ian in the range of 75 miles per hour.
While terrifying to read, that velocity represents a drop of more than 50 percent of its power in a matter of hours. The move across land saved Walt Disney World from Ian’s brunt.
However, not everyone was so fortunate. Many people in Florida will remain without power for a while because Florida Power & Light has suggested its system “will need to be rebuilt.” That’s not good.
Also, not all of Orlando proved as fortunate. Here’s the thing about Walt Disney World.
Walt Disney and the other geniuses at WED Enterprises had their pick of Central Florida land. The people who came after them had to take what was left.
Photo: Disney
Not coincidentally, Universal Orlando Resort suffered much more damage than Walt Disney World.
Here is a resort near the entrance to Universal Studios:
Wow. Everyone be safe out there. So many parts of Central Florida are experiencing flooding because of Hurricane Ian. https://t.co/N0ngXWUJM1
— Ashley Carter (@AshleyLCarter1) September 29, 2022
Meanwhile, The Incredible Hulk Coaster, which is always in the water anyway, took on a bit more:
@Attractions pic.twitter.com/UDJdCWhX3g
— Lissainflorida (@lissainbama) September 29, 2022
Also, this part of the building is missing at Jurassic Park Adventure:
Photos of damage to the Jurassic Park River Adventure show building at Universal's Islands of Adventure. https://t.co/Un5efcfAuB
— Scott Gustin (@ScottGustin) September 29, 2022
So, you should believe me when I say that Walt Disney World caught a break here.
Here’s what the brave MickeyBlog staff found at Disney’s BoardWalk, Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort, and Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa.
Walt Disney World during the Hurricane
As those links/pictures suggest, several lovely people from MickeyBlog were at Walt Disney World during the events of Hurricane Ian. Thankfully, everyone’s fine.
We did track several aspects of Disney’s operations as Hurricane Ian approached.
As has become the norm in recent years, Disney sold Hurricane Meal Kits to guests. Notably, Disney dropped the word Hurricane this time, though.
These Meal Kits proved wildly popular to the point that inventory ran low at some resorts. So, Disney stopped selling Meal Kits at these places.
The hotels reopened more restaurants instead. Management discovered the resorts had more ingredients for making regular meals than for the Meal Kit components.
You’ll find some viral videos of the lines for these Meal Kits. Some of them were so long that you’d think there was a Figment Popcorn Bucket at the end.
People were tired and hungry because park officials had implemented a sheltering-in-place order.
Management requested that guests stay inside the hotels rather than leave to eat elsewhere.
Making the Best of a Bad Situation
Thankfully, Disney kept the activities fun for its resort guests. We have several reports and photos of costumed cast members entertaining the crowd.
Here are a few highlights. And here are some images from one of our extraordinary MickeyTravels agents, who was staying at Saratoga Springs.
Chip ‘n’ Dale seemed to work overtime during Hurricane Ian. Here they are taking a break to watch some cartoons:
Some magic at Disney's All-Star Sports Resort during #HurricaneIan. https://t.co/o0RFnoNy9y
— Scott Gustin (@ScottGustin) September 29, 2022
Not to be outdone, the Country Bears showed up at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge to give guests a laugh:
The Country Bears have been hanging out at Wilderness Lodge all day during the resort lockdown for hurricane Ian. Here is a clip of some unexpected magic! #WaltDisneyWorld #disneyworld #disney #disneyparks #HurricaneIan pic.twitter.com/RTC3m80uxa
— Monorail Supply Co (@MonorailSplyCo) September 28, 2022
Have you ever seen a Country Bear do the Macarena? Well…
A fun dance party with the Country Bears during the resort lockdown for hurricane Ian at Wilderness Lodge. #WaltDisneyWorld #disneyworld #disney #disneyparks #hurricaneian pic.twitter.com/m6LwRsQsDy
— Monorail Supply Co (@MonorailSplyCo) September 28, 2022
And this one even helped out at Guest Services!
Big Al is in charge of Bell Services now at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge 🤣. #WaltDisneyWorld #DisneyWorld50 #disneyworld #HurricaneIan #disney #disneyparks pic.twitter.com/ClHTKOSuHo
— Monorail Supply Co (@MonorailSplyCo) September 29, 2022
Overall, cast members worked overtime (in some cases literally) to ensure that the magic remained for guests at Walt Disney World during Hurricane Ian.
We’re also thrilled to report a happy ending. On Wednesday, we weren’t even sure whether the parks would reopen in time for EPCOT’s 40th birthday.
Instead, MickeyBlog was on hand for the Friday morning reopening of Magic Kingdom. We also captured this video at Disney Springs:
Blue skies at Disney Springs pic.twitter.com/GkJrBXJKS4
— MickeyBlog.com (@MickeyBlog_) September 30, 2022
