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Walt Disney World to Close as Hurricane Matthew Barrels Toward Florida

Walt Disney World Resort marked its 45th anniversary on October 1, 2016 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. (Credit: Jacqueline Nell/Disneyland Resort via Getty Images)

Walt Disney World is slated to close at 5 p.m. Thursday and remain shut down through at least Friday as Hurricane Matthew heads toward Florida.

Nearly all Disney parks will be closed Friday, Oct. 7, 2016, due to Hurricane Matthew, according to Disney World’s website.

The closures will affect Walt Disney World theme and water parks, Disney Springs, miniature golf courses, and the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios appeared to be the only that would stay open Friday, the theme park’s website showed around 2:45 p.m. ET. It was not immediately clear whether it would also be shut down for the day.

Additionally, Disney campgrounds were also evacuated ahead of the Category 4 storm.

SeaWorld and Universal Orlando previously announced they would also be closed through at least Friday, according to the newspaper.

Major theme parks like Disney — which are generally open every day of the year — rarely close for the day, the Sentinel reported, noting the Orlando-based ones did in the past for Hurricane Charley in 2004 and Hurricane Floyd in 1999.

With winds of 140 mph, Hurricane Matthew was located about 125 miles east-southeast of West Palm Beach, Florida as of 2 p.m. ET Thursday, according to the latest National Hurricane Center advisory. The storm is expected to make a northwest turn toward the peninsula sometime Thursday night or early Friday.

Authorities urged more than 2 million people to leave their homes in coastal Florida, Georgia and South Carolina as the storm neared, which is the largest mandatory evacuation in the U.S. since Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast in 2012.

CNN contributed to this story. 

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