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Postby Paradise on July 19th, 2010, 12:16 pm
So I've noticed that theme parks aren't really the best at organizing safety procedures in the event of a tornado or other severe weather....Examples would be a Cedar Point ride op leaving guests at the top of a drop tower with a tornado on its way; and a video that surfaced in the event of a tornado at sfgam a few years ago where employees were desperatley lost.

Shouldn't this be a top priority? I think EVERY staff member should know where to go and how to act during incidents like these. I did however see that HersheyPark kept guests safe and in an orderly fashion recently by using their "storm center". Come to find out, its one of only a HANDFUL of parks that are certified "Storm Ready"...I'm not sure I understand the logic behind not having either a "storm center" or just having your employees unprepared for such events...I mean, with that many people at one place, wouldnt you think they would be more prepared?

Just wanna see what you guys think about this...It kinda bugs me.
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Postby Galvan on July 19th, 2010, 1:00 pm
One of the biggest fears that weather forecasters at the National Weather Service have always had... Is a Tornado going through an amusement park or sporting event where spectators are pretty much sitting ducks.

With that said, I think the big reason why some parks do not have weather shelters is the simple fact that there is just not enough room for a crowd of 15,000 to 30,000 people to be safe in a tornado.

Consider that a building with a large spanned roof (I.E. a Shopping Mall, The Pictorium whatever) is probably the worst place to be in a tornado, knowing that, there are a few places where that many people could go safely are orderly and the time it would take would make this very difficult to accomplish.

Also, there have been talk of having people go into the train tunnels or tunnels of rides like Raging Bull or Demon. Im not sure if this is the parks plan or whatever, but I should point out that this is also probably a place id never want to be in the event of a tornado as well.

This would be the equivalent of seeking shelter under an overpass or bridge during the storm, and actually what would happen in this instance, is a "wind tunnel" effect would actually would make conditions inside the tunnel WORSE then the storm itself. Check out this link for more info on the Wind Tunnel/Overpass effect: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/?n=safety-overpass-slide01
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Postby david on July 19th, 2010, 1:08 pm
Wouldn't the best thing as of right now is to open up TDK and shove as many people in there as possible? Wouldn't they also be able to put people where the track is too? TDK's track isn't all too low lying.
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Postby Galvan on July 19th, 2010, 1:13 pm
TDK would NOT be a great idea at all, given its light construction. A tornado would pulverize this building pretty easily.


TDK is constructed primarily out of the same materials as most mobile homes, and we all know how well mobile homes fare in tornadoes.
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Postby Paradise on July 19th, 2010, 5:59 pm
But whatever the circumstances, they should have SOME kind of plan set up instead of employees running around like beatles just causing more panic. I dont get how Hershey is a "storm ready" park and it's only one out of a handful in the country.
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Postby Galvan on July 19th, 2010, 6:14 pm
They are "storm ready" because Hershey has weather spotters, weather equipment and other things to be "storm ready" It's not too terribly difficult to be storm ready you just need to have Some equipment, a plan and manpower in place.
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Postby david on July 19th, 2010, 6:59 pm
Great america could build a giant structure, get some equipment and say their storm ready, but that doesn't mean that they really are.
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Postby RBull4life on July 19th, 2010, 9:47 pm
My family had a close encounter two years ago at Six Flags St. Louis. Must have been around 7:30ish, and it was as dark as it would be if it was midnight. My daughter and I had our second failed attempt to ride The Boss, when they shut it down due to rain. My wife, and son went to ride Scooby Doo. To make a long story short, My daughter and I were waiting under a bridge for the rain to stop, when a security guard ran up to us and told us that a tornado was heading in our direction, and that we needed to get to the audituriom immediatly. Inside the auditurioum you could hear the wind smashing into the side of the building. I guess the auditrioum would be better than were they sent my wife and son. They sent them to a gift shop, but the employees there had no idea what was going on. It was a chaotic mess, and to this day, my daughter does not want to go back to St. Louis.
Was it a tornado? I am not sure, but from talking to other employees, the front desk at the hotel, and the workers at the local gas station, there was a funnel that went over the parking lot.
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Postby Luxornv on July 19th, 2010, 10:03 pm
One thing I've figured out is don't wait for people to tell you what to do. Should they have a plan, yes. But do they always have a plan, no. Be aware of what your surroundings are and what kind of area you're going into. Know that bad weather can happen and figure out something that you think is safe just in case no one tells you what to do. A few years ago, I was at Route 66 Raceway during some really bad weather. We actually heard sirens at the track, but luckily no tornado there. I knew there was a chance of bad weather all weekend, and I had a plan, not a good one, figured out. Your best bet in most cases at amusement parks is to find a sturdy structure and lay down next to it so air can't get under you.
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Postby Galvan on July 19th, 2010, 11:12 pm
RBull4life wrote: Was it a tornado? I am not sure, but from talking to other employees, the front desk at the hotel, and the workers at the local gas station, there was a funnel that went over the parking lot.


Yes, there was a Tornado that was just east of the park back in 2008, The NWS often mentions this when theres a Tornado Seminar or a spotter training session.
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Postby monsterfan99 on July 20th, 2010, 8:57 am
This reminds me of something I saw yesterday at Holiday World. We saw storm clouds as we left (the weather was awful with winds over 60 MPH and ended up zapping a 3rd ride in the park in 2 days) and happened to see the bathrooms were listed as storm shelters. It was nice to know they had signs to where people did not need to wait for employees to tell them where to go.
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Postby Paradise on July 20th, 2010, 11:44 am
^That's good to know! At least they have the signs...Does anyone know for sure if sfgam has the signs? I don't think I've seen them....Then again, I wasn't looking for them either.
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Postby Goku1910 on July 20th, 2010, 5:48 pm
Any theme park employee should never tell someone where to go, because if they tell them to go somewhere that gets them injured, or killed, that leaves the company responsible. The only thing I can say is study up on some weather safety and in case a situation like this occurs, you'll know what to do.
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Postby david on July 20th, 2010, 7:01 pm
Get undercover somewhere with little to no windows, hide in a corner, or a very low point, and crouch down like they taught you at school.
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Postby Goku1910 on July 20th, 2010, 7:10 pm
that's a start. Also look for strong structures made of concrete, etc. Like Glavan mentioned, don't go to TDK because it's materials are all lightweight.
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Postby Paradise on July 20th, 2010, 7:13 pm
I'm not looking for personal advice. I think a few of you got the wrong impression about the thread. The goal of the thread was to compare parks and their procedures during severe weather. I was just curious as to why certain parks are certified and certain ones aren't. Didn't know if there was any reason. Believe me, I know what to do during a tornado. But thanks for the advice? lol :)
Last edited by Paradise on July 21st, 2010, 12:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby david on July 20th, 2010, 7:38 pm
Goku1910 wrote:that's a start. Also look for strong structures made of concrete, etc. Like Glavan mentioned, don't go to TDK because it's materials are all lightweight.


Theater Royale was built from Concrete. they can stack people in there, Pictorium, and The Grand Music Hall.
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Postby Galvan on July 20th, 2010, 9:09 pm
^ The Pictorium has a large spanned roof, which would not be a great place to be in the tornado.
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Postby Goku1910 on July 20th, 2010, 9:20 pm
Galvan316 wrote:^ The Pictorium has a large spanned roof, which would not be a great place to be in the tornado.


Galvan beat me to it again. :roll:
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Postby monsterfan99 on July 21st, 2010, 7:09 am
Goku1910 wrote:Any theme park employee should never tell someone where to go, because if they tell them to go somewhere that gets them injured, or killed, that leaves the company responsible. The only thing I can say is study up on some weather safety and in case a situation like this occurs, you'll know what to do.

If they give no direction, it leaves the company 100% at fault for any injury or deaths. In giving instructions to "official" shelters, they can be okay legally.

WDW got it right in each weeks hours schedule booklet there is a list of every storm shelter in each park along with full instructions. Always found it interesting the buildings used there for storm structures.
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Postby Goku1910 on July 21st, 2010, 11:25 am
monsterfan99 wrote:
Goku1910 wrote:Any theme park employee should never tell someone where to go, because if they tell them to go somewhere that gets them injured, or killed, that leaves the company responsible. The only thing I can say is study up on some weather safety and in case a situation like this occurs, you'll know what to do.

If they give no direction, it leaves the company 100% at fault for any injury or deaths. In giving instructions to "official" shelters, they can be okay legally.

WDW got it right in each weeks hours schedule booklet there is a list of every storm shelter in each park along with full instructions. Always found it interesting the buildings used there for storm structures.


But not all theme park employees know where is the best place to go is, nor do I think there are "official" Shelters.
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Postby BP317 on July 21st, 2010, 11:36 am
Of the three tornado's i've seen get near SFGAm, for two of them the park closed down early before the tornado got into the area and distributed comp tickets for people to come back. For the other one while the park was open employees were taken to sheltered areas (train tunnel, etc) and the national weather service announcement played over the speakers saying there was a severe tornado warning in the area and to seek shelter. Ive also been in the park when there were tornado warnings, sky turned green and everything, but the park continued to operate as normal as there were no storms. There are plans but what they decide to do specifically is a gameday decision.
At DLR the general rule for when there is an earthquake is to shut down all the rides and send everyone out on the main paths. WDW has a bunch of different plans for when there is a hurricane, including having pre-organized teams stay in the parks overnight to clear the park of debris and have it ready to open the next morning. Also WDW once in awhile will close down waterparks for the day during summer because of lightning storms.
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Postby Paradise on July 21st, 2010, 12:48 pm
BP/19 wrote:Of the three tornado's i've seen get near SFGAm, for two of them the park closed down early before the tornado got into the area and distributed comp tickets for people to come back. For the other one while the park was open employees were taken to sheltered areas (train tunnel, etc) and the national weather service announcement played over the speakers saying there was a severe tornado warning in the area and to seek shelter. Ive also been in the park when there were tornado warnings, sky turned green and everything, but the park continued to operate as normal as there were no storms. There are plans but what they decide to do specifically is a gameday decision.
At DLR the general rule for when there is an earthquake is to shut down all the rides and send everyone out on the main paths. WDW has a bunch of different plans for when there is a hurricane, including having pre-organized teams stay in the parks overnight to clear the park of debris and have it ready to open the next morning. Also WDW once in awhile will close down waterparks for the day during summer because of lightning storms.


THANK YOU! Very informative.
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Postby monsterfan99 on July 21st, 2010, 8:52 pm
^^To add to the WDW part, they use college program and young CM's to stay 24 hours at all the resorts for guest. I know someone that was down here during the 2004 hurricanes and ended up working something around 250 hours that month due to the 24's. Now they were given breaks of 14 hours, but had to stay on-site in case of something happening.
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Postby Paradise on July 21st, 2010, 9:02 pm
monsterfan99 wrote:^^To add to the WDW part, they use college program and young CM's to stay 24 hours at all the resorts for guest. I know someone that was down here during the 2004 hurricanes and ended up working something around 250 hours that month due to the 24's. Now they were given breaks of 14 hours, but had to stay on-site in case of something happening.


Must've been a nice check. lol
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