HAUNTING images show Disney World deserted as Hurricane Dorian lashes Florida’s eastern coast.
The hurricane hit the Bahamas and a number of US states this week, at one stage reaching the maximum category five intensity.
Pictures from the park, Disney’s busiest, showed attractions empty as worried tourists opted to stay at home rather than brave the bad weather.
Disney World was forced to close yesterday afternoon anticipation of strong winds, but re-opened this morning.
The park said it expects to see a spike in visitors over the weekend as guests who have postponed their trips return.
Dorian has now been downgraded to a category two storm, but wind speeds remain as high as 110mph.
The cyclone is now heading north, and will pass the states of Georgia and South Carolina over the next 24 hours.
It is expected to reach North Carolina on Friday morning before passing back out into the Atlantic Ocean.
The US National Hurricane Center said that life-threatening storm floods and dangerous winds are expected along the states’ coasts.
“The flash flood threat will increase overnight along the Florida east coast, then spread up the southeast and mid Atlantic coast beginning Wednesday,” the Center said.
Dorian has already left acres of debris and some 13,000 homes destroyed across the Bahamas after moving over the islands earlier this week.
Seven people have been confirmed killed, with the death toll expected to grow.
The long-term impact on the tourism-dependent islands is also expected to be significant.
All tropical storm warnings for the islands have now been discontinued.
Prime minister Hubert Minnis said the hurricane was “one of the greatest national crises in our country’s history”.
“Parts of [Baham island] Abaco are decimated” he said.
“There’s severe flooding, there’s severe damage to homes, businesses, other buildings and infrastructure.”
He added that residents had “endured hours and days of horror, fearing for their lives and the lives of their loved ones”.
Aerial images showed huge areas of usually-dry land submerged and devastation where waters have receded.
Harrowing accounts of personal tragedy have also emerged, including one survivor who described watching his wife drown.
Barbadian singer Rihanna led celebrity tributes to the people affected by the storm.
“It truly breaks my heart to see the complete devastation that Hurricane Dorian is having on the Bahamas,” she said.
“You are in our prayers.”
Witherspoon called the damage “beyond devastating” and said she was “praying for my friends and families in Bahamas”.
Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg wrote on twitter: “Today our thoughts are with the people in the Bahamas. Stay safe.”
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