As Hurricane Ian hit Florida last week, millions of residents began the chilling process of evacuation. Those who couldn’t or wouldn’t close windows, fill bathtubs with water, and prepare for a Category 4 hurricane.
But in Orlando, a number of local Florida vloggers headed to Disney World to ride out the storm. There, they documented and monetized one of the worst natural disasters to ever hit Florida, and some of those videos, often paired with nasty vignettes showing exaggerated damage to Disney World, anger viewers.
Kyle Pallo, a YouTuber who posts videos daily, stayed at Disney’s Pop Century Hotel throughout the hurricane. Pallo said the room was booked by out-of-state family members who decided to cancel their trip. he took their booking as he lived nearby.
“It’s going to be a scary time,” he said in a video where he checked into the hotel, then added, “So if you can, go ahead, put your thumbs up. top of this video and subscribe if you’re new.”
In a video, Pallo documented the purchase of the last available meal kit, a cheaper food option that Disney introduced for guests sheltering in their hotels, many of whom likely do not have access to vehicles. for grocery shopping. Later, Pallo showed the food he had already brought with him from home. Along with plenty of snacks, there were two full loaves of bread, a jar of peanut butter, bottled water, two bottles of wine, and a handful of tequila. The video currently has 4,000 likes for nearly 8,000 dislikes.
On Twitter, Pallo’s cheerful message about the meal kit also received significant feedback. “The Pop Century cafe is madness. BUT I received the last meal kit :)”, he wrote.
“That seems rather inconsiderate since YOU are a local and have a house to shelter yourself,” one person replied. “Glad you got the last meal kit. To hell with those hungry people who were stuck in Pop with no place to go 10 minutes away,” another added.
Pallo’s friend and roommate JoJo Crichton, whose Disney-centric TikTok account has 744,000 followers, posted a video titled “Disney Springs & Resorts is closing due to Hurricane Ian!” (more water/gas). In the video, he showed that the pumps at a single gas station near his home were shut down; the convenience store had many bottles of water.
Crichton’s video showing the aftermath of the hurricane used a thumbnail with a cracked Pop Century sign (there was no such damage) and the title, “Guests STUCK at Polynesian Resort”, apparently implied people were trapped at the hotel because of the hurricane. Crichton roamed the Polynesian Village Resort freely, showing activities for children, open restaurants and relatively unobstructed outdoor walkways.
“That’s weird,” he says to the camera, zooming in on a small upturned palm. “The biggest destruction I’ve seen so far at a Disney World resort is a pile of falling trees and branches.”
The comment at the top of the video reads: “In what world would you be forced to literally do fake Photoshop damage to the Pop Century sign? People actually lost their homes, businesses and lives in the storm and I don’t think its destruction should be publicized and turned into clickbait for a thumbnail. Please save the edit and clickbait for your other videos that don’t actually cover natural disasters.”
Video thumbnail of Pallo the day after Hurricane Ian hit Orlando shows him desperate in front of a large downed tree with the caption: ‘Damage to Disney’s Pop Century Resort due to direct impact of Hurricane Ian’ . Watching the video, you learn that there was minimal damage to the station, mostly fallen branches and flooding. The felled tree edited in the thumbnail cannot be found. Pallo, who has nearly 160,000 YouTube subscribers, racked up 350,000 views on his Hurricane Ian videos on Monday afternoon.
In response to online reviews, Pallo called Disney World Hotels “literally the safest place you could be during a hurricane.”
“Tons of people power are coming out here in Orlando. That’s why we locals go to hotels! Backup generators are much safer, crazy if you don’t agree,” he wrote on Twitter.
Another Disney World personality who chose to document his experience at the hotel was Tom Corless of WDW News Today. A two-hour livestream hosted by Corless has a vignette with the words “Trapped in Walt Disney World Hotel’s Hurricane Ian” against a storm-darkened sky. Corless, who had a savannah-view room at the luxury Animal Kingdom Lodge resort, was never caught out; he explained that he preferred to stay at Disney World hotels during hurricanes because his apartment sometimes had “maintenance issues”. The cheapest savannah view rooms usually range from $650 to $800 a night.
By Monday afternoon, at least 100 people had been killed by Hurricane Ian in Florida. Whole neighborhoods in Fort Myers, Naples and other southwest Florida towns are wiped out. It is not yet known how many Floridians are now homeless.
“We fly and operate in unrecognizable areas,” said U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Brendan McPherson. told CNN. “There are no road signs. They don’t look like they used to look anymore. Buildings that were once landmarks in the community are no longer there.
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