Hurricane Ian has been a massive storm, even by modern hurricane standards. While the Orlando area was not in the direct path of Ian, it was clear early that the area theme parks were going to get hit with significant weather and all Disney, Universal, and other parks, closed down for at least yesterday and today. For the most part it appears that the area made it through, but at least one attraction at Universal’s Islands of Adventure is going to need significant repairs.
Pictures have been coming out on Twitter of the Orlando area on social media that show that one wall of the Jurassic Park River Adventure was apparently torn away by the wind and the rain of Hurricane Ian. Check out the image below.
🚨 We have Assets Out Of Containment 🚨 Hole in the side of Jurassic Park River Ride. #Universal #IslandsOfAdventure #HurricaneIan pic.twitter.com/zf9d4gKns2September 29, 2022
It’s difficult to tell from this distance how significant the damage is. It's certainly a hell of a whole, but ew can't tell if that's all it is. If it’s just the exterior that needs to be repaired, the ride might be ok. However, if the interior of the ride received a significant amount of damage due to the wind and rain getting in after the wall came down, the River Adventure could be out of commission for quite some time.
This is especially frustrating as the Jurassic Park flume ride closed down for refurbishment earlier this year. It’s possible that work that was done only a few months ago will now need to be done again to get the ride back into operational condition.
At this point, that appears to be the most significant damage that any theme parks suffered at the hands of Hurricane Ian. However, this is the sort of damage that can be seen at a distance. There’s quite possibly damage that’s less visible that hasn’t actually been discovered yet. And if something like this happened at Universal Orlando Resort there’s a good possibility that Walt Disney World saw similar weather, and will likely deal with similar damage.
There will almost certainly be cosmetic damage to all Orlando area theme parks. We've seen the sort of debris that hurricanes leave behind at Disney World before. There will probably be trees that were knocked over that will need to be cleared. There will be some amount of flooding that will mean water will need to be drained. One such example also comes from Universal’s Islands of Adventure.
It appears part of The Incredible Hulk’s roller coaster track is underwater at @UniversalORL. https://t.co/YEJ2Mtx4TgSeptember 29, 2022
As of this writing, Universal Orlando, Disney World, and other area parks are expecting to reopen for business tomorrow. It seems likely that they will open, but that doesn’t mean they’ll be offering everything to guests that they usually do. Some attractions may need to remain closed for repairs, some restaurants may not be available. While the parks will certainly move as quickly as possible to establish full service, it may be some time before they’re able to do that.
In the end, there's going to be a lot of damage to get through for both businesses and residents. All we can hope is that the people are ok. The rest will figure itself out.
