Written by Joe Lane
Published: August 17, 2004 at 6:31 PM
Friday, August 13 2004 will be a date to remember for millions of Florida residents and tourists. It's a day where Mother Nature showed just how unpredictable she can be. Not only did Hurricane Charley alter his course as predicted by the National Weather Service and countless meteorological organizations, but it strengthened from a Category 2 to a Category 4 in a mere matter of hours. Winds increased from 110 to 155 mph, with storm surges growing from eight to eighteen feet. The resulting chaos left 19 dead and more than half a million without power or homeless.
Charley carved a path north-northwest through the state of Florida, taking it right through Orlando. Immediate concern is naturally for the safety of the people, however, once the ordeal has subsided, theme park fans might hold some interest in how the Orlando parks fared in the high winds of a hurricane. The good news is, the parks withstood the storm surprisingly well.
While Busch Gardens Tampa had been closed all day Friday in anticipation of a direct hit from Charley, the Orlando parks planned on closing around 1 or 2 in the afternoon.
General consensus at all the major parks involved minor damage, mostly to landscaping and other superficial elements, not to mention scattered debris. News reports and articles are easy to come by, if you search for them. Phone lines were jammed this past weekend as Guests called in to ask about park operating hours.
At the Walt Disney World Resort, the Magic Kingdom, Epcot and the Disney-MGM Studios were open on time Saturday morning. Animal Kingdom remained closed, reportedly due to the fact that there weren't enough Cast Members to keep all four parks fully staffed. Universal Orlando parks opened about thirty minutes late while workers cleared debris. SeaWorld opened three hours after their normal operating hours, because they suffered some damage on the theater seating area for their Fusion water sport show. The show did not perform Saturday. Discovery Cove was closed all day Saturday as workers went to great lengths to fix the damaged landscape, including restocking beach sand.
For more information, check out the Readers' Hurricane Charley Reports here on Theme Park Insider.
I wonder how Universal and SeaWorld employees feel about their respective parks being open the very next day?
A lot of the letters are from Cast Members who were held against their will past closing for undisclosed reasons, or those who came into the parks the following day and told to prune up damaged trees with handsaws before posted opening time. Meanwhile, many employees have their own problems to deal with at home. Part of it is a question of CM safety in the parks, part of it is a question of a lack of humanitarianism towards the hurricane victims.
The ride-out crew would prep the park for the storm by bringing benches, chairs and other portable equipment indoors or into the tunnels underneath the Magic Kingdom. They the crew would hunker down in the tunnels during the storm. After the storm passed, the crew would assess damage in their areas, request repair assistance where needed, clean up debris and return those benches and portable equipment to their proper place.
Most single folks like me I knew in attractions signed up for the duty, though the ride-out crew was never called during my years with the company. We figured there weren't any safer places in Central Florida to ride out a hurricane than the Magic Kingdom tunnels. Plus, under the contract rules at the time, the overtime and double-time pay would add up very quickly if you were stuck at the park for 24 hours or more.
I'am glad to hear that the theme parks are okay for the moment. From my trip report "back from florida" I was thinking, if we went there a little later well...It would have been our first hurricane experience.