Usually when hurricanes go through Florida, Disney remains open unless the storm is so strong they need to close for the safety of their guests and cast members. Given the strength and intensity of Hurricane Ian, Disney was closed yesterday and today. Disney has only closed six other times in the past for hurricanes since opening in 1971. Based on the damage we have seen in EPCOT from Hurricane Ian, it was a good thing Disney was closed for the hurricane.
We received an exclusive photo from inside of EPCOT today. This is the most damage a hurricane has ever done to a building on Walt Disney World property. As you can see in the photo below, Spaceship Earth, more commonly known as the EPCOT ball, has been destroyed by Hurricane Ian.
As seen in the photo, Spaceship Earth took on severe damage. According to our source who provided the image, some of the structural beams caved in due to the high winds and heavy rain. They mentioned there were many pieces of the ball on the ground and scattered around Future World, however those pieces have since been cleaned up.
Disney has not made any announcement yet on what the future will be for Spaceship Earth as a result of this damage. There also has not been an official investigation on what went wrong. This is breaking news and we at MouseTrap News are the first to be reporting on the story. We wonder if this damage to Spaceship Earth will force Disney to keep EPCOT closed for a few more days.
We reached out to a structural engineer who has worked with Disney in the past for his thoughts on what Disney might do. He mentioned three potential outcomes. The most likely is Disney will repair the part of the structure that was destroyed. Next most likely would be Disney destroying Spaceship Earth completely and rebuilding it, likely updating the attraction in the process. Lastly and least likely is they destroy Spaceship Earth and don’t rebuild it. He mentioned even just repairing the EPCOT ball could take more than a year to do given its complexity.
This damage to Spaceship Earth is really sad to see. Disney was testing a new hurricane defense technology the past few days with Hurricane Ian, but it appears that the storm still had a huge impact on the property. Luckily this is the only major damage reported from Hurricane Ian at Disney World so far, but stay tuned over the next few days for more information as it becomes available.
This is of course a satirical article, however we do not want to not downplay the impact of Hurricane Ian. Here is a great article from USA Today with various ways to donate and help support the victims of Hurricane Ian in Florida.
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