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Hurricanes & Disney
- Thread starter attisb
- Start date
TIGGER-FAN
New Member
The parks will close during hurricane conditions. During high wind conditions, some parades and fireworks shows may be canceled along with some outdoor rides being closed.
crazygirley
New Member
Um, the parks don't close. I was there during Bertha a couple years ago, and they didn't close. They don't do the fireworks is all.
polyman 65
New Member
Yes they did close the parks I was there when they closed several years ago for the hurricane.We where lucky it missed we stayed and had a great time because everyone left.I even have the letters they put in our rooms about the hurricane.
TIGGER-FAN
New Member
What I am talking about is if a hurricane makes a direct hit on the Orlando area. Bertha was more of a side-swipe.
crazygirley
New Member
No, no...not really. We were staying at a WDW resort at the time and every day, multiple times a day, we would get recorded voicemails from CM's with the latest info, right down to when the eye was expected to be in the area and what to expect, and to inform us that despite the rain and wind we would get, the parks would remain open. Orlando is very much inland and won't ever get the storms/waves/flooding that the costal areas get. You know, people who live in costal areas actually come to the Orlando area during hurricaines...that is, if they can get a hotel.
SpongeScott
Well-Known Member
Irony: WDW closes only two times in its history and both days happen in the same year.
Captain Cab
New Member
A couple of years ago? Hurricane Bertha was July 5 - 14, 1996. That's almost ten years ago.
Here's a link showing the storm's track and intensity during its lifetime. Not very impressive, is it? The only time central Florida was even remotely threatened was sometime on July 10 - 11 when the storm was heading due west for a short period of time.
So why weren't the theme parks closed for the upcoming storm? After all, it was a hurricane wasn't it? The issue was that although it was a hurricane, it was an incredibly weak one at that point in time. Should the storm have continued its track due west and hit Orlando, the area would only have experienced strong winds between 40 - 60 kts and lots of rainfall. Storm surge only affects the immediate coastal areas (extending possibly a mile or two inland), so that wouldn't be a factor. Flooding is a strong possibility anywhere that a hurricane or tropical storm hits (all areas inland are included).
Now let's look at Hurricane Floyd. This storm was from September 7 - 19 back in 1999 and was known for terrorizing the entire eastern coast of the U.S. At one point almost the entire coast had either a tropical storm or hurricane watch and/or warning. This storm had all of the meteorologists throwing darts at a dartboard trying to guess the correct location and time when it would make landfall. Notice that this storm was on the border of being a strong Cat 3 or weak Cat 4 when it passed by the central and southern Florida coastline. With a storm that strong and powerful Disney had every right to be concerned about the theme parks and the guests' safety.
As pointed out by freaklarm, the Disney parks were closed for atleast 24 hours at that time. It made national news since it was the first time that WDW was closed in its history. In fact, there were even pictures posted here at WDWmagic showing the empty parks and taped up windows. Fortunately the storm stayed out at sea and the parks were quick to reopen to the guests.
Here are some links to more information and images of the storms:
The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale
Hurrican Bertha on July 10th
another overview of Bertha
Hurricane Floyd on Sept 14
Floyd over northern Bahamas
MPEG video of Floyd (4.1 Mb)
Captain Cab
New Member
Hurricane Floyd was in 1999, not 2001. The only semi-ironic part is that both closing happened in mid September.
SpongeScott
Well-Known Member
Good catch, Captain. I retract my earlier post and thanks for the good info in your other post.
Captain Cab
New Member
SpongeScott,
No problem at all about that mistake.
My bachelor's degree was Operational Meteorology, and my specialty was in severe weather. In one of my classes I got to do a group presentation about Hurricane Floyd (development, track, and overall impact of the storm to the local areas).
No problem at all about that mistake.
My bachelor's degree was Operational Meteorology, and my specialty was in severe weather. In one of my classes I got to do a group presentation about Hurricane Floyd (development, track, and overall impact of the storm to the local areas).
shari71
New Member
Unfortunately, I was there for the 9/11 closing and Tropical Storm Gabrielle (I think that was the name) hit two days later. There were messages on the phone saying they would be open, but that there would be strong winds and rain. That trip was the worst one! We only had four days and only one of it was nice.
Worldphile
New Member
This is true. We were in WDW for Floyd. At one point, the forecast had the eye of the hurricane passing right over Orlando and they were predicting 130 mph winds on Disney property. That's why the parks closed. All of the parks were supposed to be closed one day, but since the storm stayed out to sea, they opened AK at the last moment. You've never seen AK so crowded!
They evacuated CBR and, I think, some of the buildings at the All Star resorts since they are on low lying land. The put people in other resorts, but a lot of people ended up sleeping on chaise lounges in the Contemporary convention center.
