Orlando braces for hurricane impacts well inland from Milton's expected landfall

AccuWeather

Even as far into Florida as Orlando, theme parks will be shutting down from Oct. 9-10 and everyone is preparing for potentially destructive flooding and winds.

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00:00But our coverage continues right now with AccuWeather correspondent Leslie Hudson joining us live from Orlando, Florida with an update.

00:06Leslie, I know a lot of the theme parks have made announcements either closed all day or closing at 2 p.m.

00:11depending on where you are. A lot of eyes on this area for flooding, for wind and even a tornado threat.

00:18So where will you be for this? And what's your game plan as we move through this storm?

00:25So Jeff, we think we're going to stay probably in this Orlando metro proper area.

00:30Right behind me you can see is the famous Lake Eola Fountain. This is one of the benchmark,

00:35if not the signature, of Orlando. I've lived here for about 20 years. Everybody knows this lake.

00:41They also know that this is where it floods. So we think this is probably going to be likely

00:46flooded when we see Milton get to its closest point to the Orlando area. There's multiple areas

00:52here in the Orlando area that are concerned, one of them being the St. Johns River,

00:56which is further to the east of Orlando, but it spills down into multiple smaller cities

01:03all along from Jacksonville down into the central Florida area. So that's a concern.

01:07We're going to be trying to track some of that as well. Lake Monroe in Sanford is another area

01:12that floods. Lake Harney was devastated by E.N. I covered that a couple of years ago. We're going

01:16to also check that area out, see how they're withstanding the St. Johns. I know there is

01:20some concerns the St. Johns is going to flood. So in the coming days, we're going to kind of

01:25gauge all that. But we were in Disney Springs earlier today and the folks there, a lot of them

01:31are tourists, but a lot of them also were Milton evacuees trying to get their mind off this

01:36incredible load of stress. I talked to so many people in the Tampa Bay area over the last 10

01:42days who have just been really stricken with anxiety, worry about their homes. Some people

01:47tried to get some relief from that worry, some load of what they will come back to.

01:53But there's also these tourists that come from around the country and around the world. This is

01:57the height of our season here in Orlando. This is when we get a lot of tourists coming in. The

02:00weather starts to cool off and a lot of these tourists like to soak up our sunshine this time

02:04of the year. So I talked to one tourist who just came in from Michigan and this will be her first

02:09hurricane, but she's taking it in stride. I'm a little nervous, never been through one, but at

02:16the same time I know we're a little bit more central. So if you've been in Tampa, definitely

02:21cancel the trip. But at this point, you know, we're just in a weathered storm waiting out.

02:31Just a reminder, Jeff, that we here in Orlando are under a hurricane warning. We are expecting

02:36category one winds if the track holds. And the last time we saw that kind of wind in this area

02:41was 2004 Hurricane Charlie. I was here for that and we're concerned what that means for this area.

02:45This area was hit hard. Reporting live in Orlando, I'm Leslie Hudson. Back to you.

02:50All right. Well, we appreciate all that you share with us there. Leslie, be safe in Orlando. Again,

02:55various closures for some of the big parks and so forth either all day or beginning at 2 p.m. tomorrow.

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