ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Orlando’s tourism machine began grinding to a halt Tuesday with at least two major theme parks and the main airport announcing closures ahead of Hurricane Milton ’s expected hit as a major storm in Florida.
Universal said it would close its theme parks and entertainment district at 2 p.m. Wednesday and remain closed on Thursday, canceling Halloween Horror Nights scheduled for both days.
SeaWorld Orlando also said it would close on Wednesday and Thursday.
The theme parks join Orlando International Airport, which said it would cease operations Wednesday morning. The airport is the nation’s seventh busiest and Florida’s most trafficked.
Meanwhile, Walt Disney World said it was operating under normal conditions and planned, for now, only to close its campgrounds and rental cabins in wooded areas. The theme park said it would continue monitoring the weather and adjust accordingly.
The only indication at Disney Springs that a hurricane was coming was the closure of a hot air balloon ride. “Closed due to hurricane,” an electronic sign read. “Stay safe.”
All the other stores and restaurants in the outdoor shopping, dining and entertainment complex inside the resort were open and doing brisk business.
Milton, which is expected to come ashore Wednesday, threatened to ruin the vacations of tens of thousands of tourists at Disney World.
Nicole and Zeb Downs arrived on Monday after a 21-hour drive from Arkansas, expecting a 12-day Florida vacation with their three young sons. By Tuesday afternoon, they were contemplating packing up their car and heading back.
“We are disappointed but it’s kind of out of our hands at this point,” said Zeb Downs as he strolled with his family along a still-bustling Disney Springs shopping and restaurant district at the park resort.
Neither of them had experienced a hurricane before and weren’t sure they wanted to try it.
The Orlando area is the most visited destination in the United States due to Disney World, Universal Orlando Resort and other theme parks, attracting 74 million tourists last year alone.
October is also among the busier times for theme parks because of Halloween-related celebrations, which have become major money generators over the past couple decades. Universal Orlando hosts “Halloween Horror Nights,” with ghoulish haunted houses based on slasher films and other pop culture horror, and Disney has its tamer “Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party.”
While Disney rarely shuts its doors — save for dangerous hurricanes in recent years, the COVID-19 pandemic and the Sept. 11 attacks — its hotels are often havens for coastal residents fleeing impending storms. A check of Disney World’s online reservation system on Tuesday morning showed no vacancies.
Those lucky enough to get a hotel reservation have gotten unexpected treats during past storms. During Hurricane Irma in 2017, guests at a hotel on Disney property found themselves stranded with actress Kristen Bell, who voiced the role of Anna in the beloved Disney film, “Frozen.” While in Orlando, the actress found time to sing songs for evacuees at a nearby hurricane shelter.
Once a hurricane passes, the theme parks try to return operations to normal as quickly as possible. After Hurricane Charley charted a devastating path through Orlando in 2004, Disney World had utility vehicles picking up downed tree limbs and clearing roads on its property within an hour in the pitch-dark night.
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FILE - Guests at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World brave wind and rain as bands of weather from Hurricane Debby pass through Central Florida, Aug. 5, 2024, in Bay Lake, Fla. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel via AP, file)
NEW YORK (AP) — A former New York City official was charged Tuesday with witness tampering and destroying evidence in a sweeping federal investigation that led to Mayor Eric Adams' indictment on charges he took bribes and illegal campaign cash from foreign interests.
The arrest came amid an ongoing exodus of top Adams administration officials, as federal prosecutors delve deeper into allegations that the mayor was using staffers in an attempt to cover up wrongdoing.
Mohamed Bahi, who resigned Monday as the mayor’s liaison to the Muslim community, is accused of encouraging a businessman to solicit illegal straw donations from four of the businessman's employees and to then lie about it to the FBI.
At one point, Bahi told the businessman that Adams believed the man wouldn’t cooperate with law enforcement, according to prosecutors. As agents arrived to search Bahi’s home in July, they say he deleted an encrypted messaging app from his cell phone that he had used to communicate with Adams.
Speaking at a news conference Tuesday, Adams denied that he had any hand in telling anyone to lie. “I would never instruct anyone to do anything illegal or improper," he said.
Bahi, 40, was arrested early Tuesday and released on his own recognizance after a brief appearance in federal court in Manhattan. He was not required to enter a plea and was ordered to surrender his travel documents and not to contact any witnesses.
Bahi is the first person other than the mayor to be charged in the investigation. Adams praised him Tuesday as a “thoughtful” liaison who worked to “really bring down the noise in some of the conflicts we're seeing today."
Adams, a Democrat, has maintained a busy schedule in recent weeks, striking a buoyant tone at news briefings and insisting he can simultaneously lead the city, defend himself in court and reshape an administration battered by federal searches and resignations.
Adams portrayed the parade of high-level departures from his administration as unconnected to the criminal investigations — a claim at odds with statements from some of those former staffers.
His first deputy mayor, Sheena Wright, submitted her resignation Monday, one day after Adams confirmed the resignation of her brother-in-law Philip Banks, who served as the deputy mayor for public safety, and Winnie Greco, the city's director of Asian affairs. Wright’s representative declined to provide a reason for her resignation.
Last week, Adams announced the schools chancellor David Banks — the husband of Wright and brother of Philip Banks — would leave later this month, rather than at the end of the year as planned.
Police Commissioner Edward Caban resigned last month, saying he did not want the investigations to serve as a “distraction” to the police department. And a senior mayoral adviser, Timothy Pearson, has also resigned. All six officials had their devices seized by federal investigators. Each has denied wrongdoing.
Adams has vowed to stay in office and seek reelection next year after pleading not guilty Sept. 27 to charges that he accepted about $100,000 worth of free or deeply discounted international flights, hotel stays, meals and entertainment, and sought illegal campaign contributions from representatives of Turkey and other foreign interests.
At a hearing last week, Assistant U.S. Attorney Hagan Scotten said prosecutors are pursuing “several related investigations” and that it is “likely” additional defendants will be charged and “possible” that more charges will be brought against Adams.
Adams’ office confirmed Monday that another aide, Rana Abbasova, was fired. She had been the mayor’s director of protocol for international affairs and was involved in events at the heart of his indictment, including fundraising and accompanying him on trips to Turkey. She’s been on unpaid leave since the FBI raided her home last year. She is now a “key witness” for the prosecution, according to Adams’ lawyer Alex Spiro.
Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat who has the power to remove Adams from office, said last week that she was working with the mayor to make sure key positions “are filled with people who are going to be responsible.”
“We expect changes, that’s not a secret, and changes are beginning,” Hochul said.
On Tuesday, Adams denied that Hochul had signed off on any of his personnel changes, including his decision to appoint Maria Torres-Springer to replace Wright as first deputy mayor. Torres-Springer previously served as deputy mayor for economic development, housing and workforce development.
Bahi’s criminal complaint alleges that he organized a fundraiser for Adams in December 2020 at the Brooklyn headquarters of a construction company, where Bahi suggested that the company’s owner have his employees make donations to Adams’ campaign and then refund the workers for the $2,000 payments – just under the maximum allowed for individual donors in the city.
Four employees and the owner made the donations, with the workers’ payments reimbursed by the company, according to the complaint. All have subsequently spoken to law enforcement, and the owner admitted his involvement in the illegal straw donations, according to prosecutors.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement that Bahi’s charges “should leave no doubt about the seriousness of any effort to interfere with a federal investigation, particularly when undertaken by a government employee.”
“Our commitment to uncovering the truth and following the facts wherever they may lead is unwavering,” Williams said.
Adams is also accused of knowingly accepting illegal donations from straw donors — his indictment alleges he conspired to take campaign contributions from Turkish nationals and disguise the payments by routing them through U.S. citizens. That enabled Adams to unlock public funds providing an eight-to-one match for small-dollar donations, prosecutors said.
While he reiterated Tuesday that he never instructed anyone to break the law, Adams wouldn’t answer a question about whether he’d ever spoken with Bahi or Abbasova about straw donations.
Bahi’s criminal complaint states that federal and city authorities began investigating straw donations to the Adams campaign in 2021, when he was running for mayor while holding a different elected office, Brooklyn borough president. Adams was sworn in as mayor in 2022.
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Associated Press journalists Ruth Brown and Larry Neumeister contributed to this report.
New York City mayor Eric Adams, right, appears with his attorney, Alex Spiro, outside Manhattan federal court after an appearance, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, right, appears in Manhattan federal court with his attorney, Alex Spiro, left, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
FILE - New York Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright attends a press conference at City Hall, in New York, Dec. 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Peter K. Afriyie, File)
New York City Mayor Eric Adams looks on while surrounded by faith leaders and other supporters during a rally and prayer vigil on the steps of City Hall in New York, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
FILE - Mayor Eric Adams, right, is flanked by deputy mayor Sheena Wright, left, during a press conference at City Hall in New York, Dec. 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Peter K. Afriyie, File)
