ORLANDO, Fla. — Floridians were waking up Thursday to assess the damage of Hurricane Milton. It moved across the state overnight and into the Atlantic.
Some Houston families were stuck in Florida as Milton made landfall, including one group hunkering down at Disney World. The group of family and friends said they were supposed to be celebrating one of the girl's 10th birthday at Disney World, but theme park plans slowed down as they got word Hurricane Milton was on the way.
While there, some of the girls recorded video at Disney's All-Star Music Resort, pretending to be reporters covering the storm ahead of landfall.
One of the moms, Haley Beatty, said they all got to Orlando last Thursday and were supposed to head back home this Thursday, but Hurricane Milton put a damper on all of that and now they're scheduled to return back to Houston Saturday.
Here's how Haley described how the storm felt before midnight.
"With the hotel being well-insulated, we have the heavy metal doors and all that stuff," she said. "The wind is actually howling outside right now. We've had the heavy rain on and off."
We checked back in with them Thursday morning. They said overall, Disney has been very accommodating.
"One of the best places you can be," Beatty said. "They have the lobby set up with games, and characters. The cafe is still going. They’ve reassured all of our fears and assured us they have us covered."
Riding the storm out at Disney
We reported on Wednesday morning about how Disney World was a popular spot to ride out a hurricane. Some Florida residents think of it as the safest place to be in a storm. That’s thanks in part to the site’s impressive infrastructure.
Disney World rarely loses power. It has no fragile power lines to get knocked down in the winds and produces a massive amount of its own electricity thanks to solar facilities and backup sources on site.
When we posted the story on Facebook, many people from the Houston area commented they were there.