Hurricane Irma

[Dubman]

In October 2004 we went to Disney World.. One of the most vivid memories from that trip were the amount of blue tarps on the roofs of houses on the trip from the Airport to Disney.. Courtesy of Hurricane Charley.. The top to the roof of the Off Kilter stage was also gone..

Please everyone in the path be safe!! This storm is forecast to have stronger winds than Charley which had 106 mph gusts in Orlando

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Charley

 

[21stamps]

Matthew reached cat 5 status less than a year ago. It stayed just offshore, largely sparing Florida, and certainly sparing Orlando... and this could happen again. Plenty of people canceled their Disney vacations and probably wish in retrospect they had not. Amazing how quickly people forget.

I know several people keep saying "well (insert hurricane here) was a Cat 5.

But I think what a lot of you are forgetting is that those hurricanes were not Cat 5 or even strong 4 when they hit or skimmed the US.

You need to get all of those hurricanes out of your mind and think Andrew, but bigger.

 

[Beacon Joe]

The US has been hit by a grand total of 3 Category 5 hurricanes.

2 of which were in Florida. Only one of them is recent enough for many of us to have been alive at that time.

I do think that it's ok for people to be very concerned with Irma, and they aren't overreacting.

Oh, I agree. We lived without a roof and with a flooded first floor for a month back in the 80s, and that was after 'Iwa which was a lowly Cat 1 at landfall, but with a storm surge that took everybody by surprise.

But statements along the lines of "worst ever" or "like we haven't seen in our lifetimes" (which I was responding to) drive me totally batty as I think it indicates a lack of awareness and understanding of nature.

 

[Dubman]

Not that it couldn't be bad still, but it would lose a lot of steam by the time the center of the hurricane gets to central Florida.

Southern Florida, however...yikes..

The forecast shows it not losing hurricane force winds until well into the State of Georgia...

 

[asianway]

Monday will most likely be the worst day for Orlando. I don't see them opening at all Monday.

Thats why I said if at all, but Sunday night is going to be the brunt of it. The travel over land will continue to diffuse it, so the worst will hit first.

 

[Andrew C]

The forecast shows it not losing hurricane force winds until well into the State of Georgia...

But there is a big difference between 180 mph winds and 80 to 100 mph winds...

 

[21stamps]

It can never be guaranteed but as a result of the storm many people with upcoming reservations starting early next week will not be able to get here which will create 'some' capacity to support. However, the massive number of people evacuating are looking for any room they can find in central Florida and it is likely WDW may be at near 100% occupancy. Hotel rooms in central FL are already becoming scarce to get with all of the evacuees arriving.Disney will do what they can but they only have finite capacity

Thank you. Hopefully there will be a few available rooms for the people who were already down there before this weekend if they do get stranded.

 

[MaximumEd]

I think only 3 have ever hit the mainland US as a Cat 5. Labor Day 1935, Camille, and Andrew.

Edit: Saw @21stamps already posted this. This thread is moving too fast for me to keep up.

 

[21stamps]

I think only 3 have ever hit the mainland US as a Cat 5. Labor Day 1935, Camille, and Andrew.

Yep. The other hurricanes were mostly Cat 5s at some point, but not when they hit or skimmed the US.

 

[disney4life2008]

They are saying the hurricane moved west which means it's worse for Orlando

 

[MaximumEd]

Just heard Irma has tracked a bit west and should make landfall near Miami as a cat 4. Stay safe.

 

[21stamps]

Oh, I agree. We lived without a roof and with a flooded first floor for a month back in the 80s, and that was after 'Iwa which was a lowly Cat 1 at landfall, but with a storm surge that took everybody by surprise.

But statements along the lines of "worst ever" or "like we haven't seen in our lifetimes" (which I was responding to) drive me totally batty as I think it indicates a lack of awareness and understanding of nature.

Ugh. Sorry that happened to you

For the comments though, As of right now those statements are true. The Labor Day hurricane had winds of 200+. Islands were obliterated and many people died.

Yes, that was a long time of go with different technology, structures, and warnings, and the vast majority of us were not alive then.

It's accurate that as of now this is the "worst we have seen in our lifetimes"

 

[MaximumEd]

Ugh. Sorry that happened to you

For the comments though, As of right now those statements are true. The Labor Day hurricane had winds of 200+. Islands were obliterated and many people died.

Yes, that was a long time of go with different technology, structures, and warnings, and the vast majority of us were not alive then.

It's accurate that as of now this is the "worst we have seen in our lifetimes"

Worse than Andrew, do you think? Hard to say now, but I remember that one.

 

[sudokujesus]

I know several people keep saying "well (insert hurricane here) was a Cat 5.

But I think what a lot of you are forgetting is that those hurricanes were not Cat 5 or even strong 4 when they hit or skimmed the US.

You need to get all of those hurricanes out of your mind and think Andrew, but bigger.

Matthew, as a category 4 hurricane scraping the Florida coast. I'm not sure how you think Irma is going to be so much worse than this, from a Disney World perspective. It's either going to make landfall in south Florida and come up the peninsula, and be a much weaker storm by the time it arrives in Orlando (and even then, Disney World is likely to be west of the worst weather). Or, it will remain offshore as a monster, but far enough away that impacts will be similar to Matthew.

When it stays a category 5 offshore and then makes a hard left turn at Melbourne, let me know.

It's good to be prepared for the worst. But this is not going to be apocalyptic for Orlando. Miami? West Palm Beach? Sure, that's possible. And god bless those of you in its direct path near the coast.

 

[asianway]

Somebody trying to play the "Disney Money Grab" angle.
How original.

I highly doubt they're trying to squeeze out extra profits this weekend at the expense of Cast Member safety.
The money they'd make would be the rounding error of a rounding error on their huge company's bottom line.
Spare me.

They've been through big storms before. I'm confident Disney will do the right thing at the right time concerning closing the parks.

Disney knows right now when they will be closing - they choose not to share.

 

[flynnibus]

Like a tornado... the massive 'utter destruction' band is usually very narrow... but the impacted band is very wide. Hurricanes generally hit wide and spread their impact.. with the biggest issues being storm surges. Of course inland, those things don't apply, but the sustained wind and rain usually lead to flooding problems and impacted infrastructure.

What you see in say Port Aransas in Texas is the 'narrow band', but what you see in the region is the wide impact. Everyone who lives on the coast or has property on it is used to downplaying storms because the warnings areas usually far exceed the actual narrow band of hard core damage. So everyone is used to "its not that bad..." because frankly we all play the odds, and most people will never get caught by it.

But while the catastrophic damage may only be in a narrow band... the impacted band means all kinds of things. Difficulty in movement, power issues, water issues, flooding, property damage, shortages. All of these things are things people should be focused on cleanup and restoration of services... not dealing with tourists looking to entertain little susie.

 

[Beacon Joe]

Has anybody heard any estimates of how many guests are still at Disney World?

 

[Lets Respect]

No, I just put the psychological welfare of thousands of children into consideration for not shutting down the park sooner than necessary. At the parks, 'little susie' can eat and run around until being locked up in a hotel room for 24 hours. You close the parks early and the resort kitchen might run out of food before the storm hits. Resort guests can't stock up like locals can. Shutting down the parks has a huge impact on logistics, transportation, crowd control, temperament, etc. Closing the parks would just require more employees to staff the resorts to handle the crowds of people with nothing to do until the storm hits.

Why can't resort guests stock up? Take a taxi or Uber down the street and see what you can get.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Matthew reached cat 5 status less than a year ago. It stayed just offshore, largely sparing Florida, and certainly sparing Orlando... and this could happen again. Plenty of people canceled their Disney vacations and probably wish in retrospect they had not. Amazing how quickly people forget.

I don't suppose you read the thread before posting?....

Staying in WDW during a hurricane is not fun.

When Matthew hit, WDW sent all but a skeleton crew of CMs home -- as they should. That small skeleton crew will not run buses or restaurants or room service for you. Boxed lunches is all you get. Nothing may be open for two to three days. You'll ask for bottled water and they'll be none. You'll go to the food court and it will be devoid of food. You'll go to the pool and it will be closed (and you wouldn't want to go in it with all the stuff that's been blown into it). The storm will pass and the parks still won't be open. Disney Springs won't be open. Citricos and Ohana and Boma and Whispering Canyon won't be open.

And that's assuming the power stays on, which it might not. And then you'll be in your room in the dark with no TV or internet and with your phone battery dying. And no air conditioning.

Yes, WDW is relatively safe in that it is highly unlikely you'll get the type of wind that will tear off the roof of your hotel. But it most definitely can knock out power and leave you hungry and very uncomfortable for a few days.

Anyone who says it's great to ride out a hurricane in WDW is purely delusional.

As for Matthew, it poured that morning, the park closed the rest of the day and for the next day. People were miserable with just boxed lunches and no food service. And everyone was lucky to have power. Roads had branches and obstacles. Even though we didn't have hurricane winds, gusts could have knocked out power at any time. Then you're in a hot hotel room with no A/C.

Matthew wasn't a fun time, and it was off shore. Anything closer will be much worse. People who regret the cancellation are delusional if they think they made a mistake.

 

[asianway]

If the latest update holds true, Orlando will not fare just fine

theyll do better than St Martin...