Mom Called ‘Tone Deaf’ For Vlogging A Vacation To Disney Amid Hurricane Milton Evacuations — 'Residents Need Hotels And Airbnbs To Evacuate'
She was ready for a fun vacation while the rest of Florida was fleeing.
Photos: Gambar ida setyorini, irynakhabliuk | Design: YourTango Florida is gearing up for a big hurricane to make landfall — the second in as many weeks. As residents brace for another hard hit, many are leaving their homes behind and canceling vacations they had planned to the Sunshine State.
One family, however, decided not to take this route. Instead, they moved forward with their vacation — and received quite a bit of criticism for it.
One mom vlogged her trip to Disney World in Orlando, Florida while the area prepared for Hurricane Milton.
Content creator Cecily Bauchmann made a video featuring her husband, children, and pets that showed her packing for a trip to Disney World. Bauchmann has since deleted the video, but not before it was reposted by many others who were shocked by her apparent inability to grasp the seriousness of the situation.
One TikTok user who shared the video, Daphney, said, “This lady’s heading to Disney knowing a cat five hurricane is on the way. The lights are on but no one’s home.”
Fellow TikTok users who commented on Daphney’s repost of the video were not kind at all.
“Cecily is so tone deaf,” one person said.
“It’s giving out of touch,” another added.
A third person shared, “I’m watching this as I’m packing for Florida to help with the recovery from the hurricane from work.”
Bauchmann’s poor choice of vacation timing hasn’t seemed to make a dent in her popularity, however. She currently has 2.2 million followers on the video-sharing platform alone.
Hurricane Milton is on track to be a devastating and historic storm.
NBC News reported that Milton reached Category 5 ahead of its landfall in Florida. It will likely make landfall Wednesday, October 9 as a Category 3 storm.
According to the Florida Disaster website, mandatory evacuation orders are currently in place for 13 counties in the state, while others are under voluntary or recommended evacuation orders.
Local news station Fox 29 reported on an interview that Tampa Mayor Jane Castor gave to CNN. Castor said, “Helene was a wake-up call. This is literally catastrophic. I can say this without any dramatization whatsoever: If you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you are going to die.”
This dire warning may seem like an exaggeration to some, but with the ever-strengthening nature of this hurricane and the destruction the southeastern United States has already seen from Hurricane Helene, there really is no reason to wonder why the mayor would say such a thing.
Despite all of this, Disney World is open.
The Associated Press clarified that, as of right now, Disney World and fellow Orlando theme park Universal are still open, but are scheduled to close on Wednesday, October 9.
Disney did close portions of its available cabins and campgrounds located in “wooded areas.” Meanwhile, Orlando International Airport, the busiest in the state, did shut down. This could interrupt the vacation plans of Bauchmann and others who have decided to try riding out the storm in the “happiest place on earth.”
It seems irresponsible to go to Florida for a fun vacation right now.
While it’s no one’s place to judge how someone else lives their life, it does seem awfully strange to travel to Florida right now.
Millions of residents have no choice but to evacuate and leave their homes behind with no idea what they will return to. They could lose all of their possessions that they don’t take with them. Lives could be lost.
But, despite all of this, there are some who still think it’s an appropriate time to take a fun trip to Disney. It simply shows a lack of awareness of the horrible situation so many have found themselves in right now, especially after the country has just experienced the devastating effects of one storm.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer for YourTango who covers entertainment, news and human interest topics.