Disney World has reopened Tuesday, Sept. 12, after Hurricane Irma passed over Florida.
The Disney parks were closed Sunday and Monday before they opened at 9 a.m. Tuesday. The water parks will stay closed for now, Disney said in a statement.
Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom operated during the park’s normal hours Tuesday. The Disney Springs shopping and entertainment complex also reopened, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
Universal Studios---near Disney World---also reopened Tuesday, the park stated.
SeaWorld Orlando and Aquatica water park are slated to open on Wednesday. It’s unclear when Discovery Cove will be reopened, according to the Sentinel.
“Our destination saw relatively minor damage overnight involving fences, trees, signage, and building facades,” reads a statement from Universal Orlando. “We are hard at work inside our parks and we can confirm an on-time opening for Tuesday, Sept 12 at 9 a.m. for Universal Studios, Universal’s Islands of Adventure, and Universal’s Volcano Bay.”
A lifeguard hut is pictured as Hurricane Irma arrives in Hollywood, Florida. (Reuters/Carlo Allegri)
On social media, some people shared photos of the minor damage that Disney World sustained in the storm, which made landfall in the Florida Keys on Sunday morning.
It includes tree damage at the Be Our Guest Restaurant in the Magic Kingdom park, flooding at Epcot, and some damage close to Cinderella’s Castle, according to Time magazine.
Floridians return home after Irma
Residents who returned to the Florida Keys archipelago on Tuesday found Hurricane Irma had shredded mobile homes like soda cans and coated businesses with seaweed, while the death toll rose for the second major hurricane to hit the United States this year.
Irma, one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes on record before it arrived in the United States, killed 43 people in its rampage through the Caribbean and at least 12 in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.
On Islamorada Key, one of just three islands where authorities allowed people to return on Tuesday, the aluminum walls of trailer homes had been ripped open by the storm, exposing insulation, bedrooms, and kitchens to the sunlight.
Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter with 15 years experience who started as a local New York City reporter. Having joined The Epoch Times' news team in 2009, Jack was born and raised near Modesto in California's Central Valley. Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/jackphillips5
