After a visit to Magic Kingdom this morning, we stopped by Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort to check out some damage caused by high winds during Hurricane Milton. As you’ll see in the photos below, the Aotearoa building sustained some significant damage during the hurricane. A portion of the roof was peeled off, allowing rain to cause water damage to the interior of the building. Guests were evacuated from the building during the storm. The Tuvalu building sustained similar roof damage.
Polynesian Village Resort Damage Due to Hurricane Milton
We captured some photos from Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort (which has scattered shingle damage), from the watercraft, and from the grounds of Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort. The roof of both the Aotearoa building and the Tuvalu building was peeled back, similar to a can of tuna, by high winds. At first, the damage appears to be cosmetic, but the building is closed off to guests and fans are running in the hallways and rooms due to water damage caused by a portion of the roof being peeled off. While Hurricane Milton was a multi-hour event starting late Wednesday night into the early hours of Thursday, some of the heaviest winds felt in the Walt Disney World area were from the back side of the storm, and out of the north around 2am to 4am.
Hurricane Milton made landfall Wednesday night as an extremely dangerous category 3 hurricane near Siesta Key in Sarasota County along the west coast of Florida. Initial data from the National Hurricane Center shows that Hurricane Milton passed about 20-25 miles south of Walt Disney World as a Category 1 storm.
We’re still waiting to see if the National Weather Service releases peak wind gust info for Walt Disney World, but there was an early reading about 3.5 miles northwest of Cinderella Castle that recorded a gust of 70mph at 4am Thursday morning. In terms of rainfall, the reporting locations at Walt Disney World have recorded 48-hour rainfall totals during the storm between 6″ and 13″.
We didn’t observe any other major damage at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort, including no damage to the new Disney Vacation Club Island Tower currently under construction.
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!
