As I write this post, Hurricane Dorian is decimating the Bahamas and may or may not cause some major damage to the eastern half of Florida.
Because it’s inland, Central Florida doesn’t get nearly the amount of damage that can be seen on the Atlantic or Gulf coasts of the state (hurricanes need to be over warm water to gain/keep their strength, so as they go over land, they lose some of their steam). Granted, we still get our share of major issues when big storms come through. Roofs blow off houses, trees come down, mobile homes are destroyed, we lose electricity for days or weeks, etc. We, thankfully, just don’t get the same level of devastation that the coasts get, is all.
ABOVE: Hurricane Charley, 2004. 110mph winds knocked down our neighbor’s tree, which landed on our tree and roof
Of course, Orlando International Airport also shuts down for big weather issues such as hurricanes, since it’s obviously not safe for planes to fly in that sort of weather (although this Allegiant plane full of passengers did during Hurricane Florence in 2018???)
So between people from the coast evacuating inland, others being stranded because their flights are canceled, and having over 120,000 hotels rooms in the area because we have a lot of theme parks, we tend to get an influx of visitors when a hurricane is aimed at Florida.
Some hoteliers would take advantage of this and raise prices, gouging people when they’re in the most need. But there’s one hotel owner in Central Florida who does the opposite…
