hurricane help needed

[sharon-o]

Hi all, we are due to fly out 2 weeks today, i know there is a risk of hurricanes, my questions are... if there is a bad hurricane what happens to folk stayin in a villa?

We are going with first choice.
If there's a bad hurricane would we need to be evacuated and if so were do they put you?

Also how do you find out up to date information as in a villa you have no hotel staff/guests to ask or rep at hand?

I remember last year it was particurlarly bad..what were your experiences if you were there?
Thanks sharon + her worried 13 yr old

 

[Clare D]

Hi Sharon
Firstly I don't think you need to panic too much. I have friends who have a villa in Orlando and they suffered water damage following from the hurricane last year. There was no significant damage thank goodness. It is usually those areas that are on the coast that get seriously damaged so I would doubt that you would need to be evacuated.
Also keep your eye on the weather reports on the TV and listen to the radio on the car for up to date local weather information.
Ensure that you have an emergency point of contact just in case anything does happen.
We had thankfully just missed hurricane Andrew in ,92 and had been staying at St Pete's. Everywhere was getting boarded up and the winds were really picking up.
My advice is just make sure you have all contact info to hand just in case.
Have a good time
Clare

 

[Aceman88888]

In your villa you will have at least one TV and you will have access to 24hr weather channels. We made an effort to catch 10 mins of this each morning to help plan around that day's weather (i.e. likelyhood of thunderstorms etc). Once a hurricane is even within 1000 miles, they sure ramp up the coverage on virtually all news content channels.

As for safety, most new villas are not glorified mobile homes and have a cement/wood construction and they look and feel quite sturdy. All usually have a garage and as they don't have windows would be the safest place to be probably or under stairs if you are in a 2 storey property.

Chances are anyway that you will have a nice normal stay with plenty of sunshine and some isolated but heavy thunderstorms.....that's been my norm and many others in florida.

 

[arieliwish]

We were there for Frances last Sept, stayed in clarion Universal and the staff were great keeping us informed and feeding us when there was no power.

One tip I would give is have some bottled water and easy snacks in, plus a torch (+ spare batteries) and also a battery radio to listen in to the latest advice and reports. We had DD mobile phone with radio, which lasted almost a full day without needing charged, but then died before power returned.

I'm sure First Choice would keep you up to date and give you the necessary advice if you needed to take any extras precautions. The chances are you won't witness any adverse weather - Frances was a bad storm but not as bad as we expected - the news channels here show the worst affected areas, not the overall picture.

And as I've said before, Orlando copes extremely well with hurricanes, they get everything up and running in no time

 

[snookhams]

We were in a villa for Charley last year - although we booked it privatley. The management company should be in touch with you, if you are not evacuated then simple things like putting the pool furniture into the pool (minus the cushions) will help stop the wind picking it up and using it like a missile. We made the walk in closet our headquarters, using the scatter cusions from the setee on the floor and had bottled water and snacks and a small radio, when we had the Tornado warnings for our area we even put a mattress from one of the single beds up against the door as added protection. We have not let it put us off as you can see from our countdown, last year was our 6th visit and the first time anything like that had ever happened!

 

[wicket2005]

There are other suggestions on what to do in case of a hurricane/tornado, just run some searches on Google.

Usually it is a case of going in the room in the house with no windows and doing what snookhams did.

 

[snookhams]

The american red cross website has some good helpful hints and tips I just did a search on google (searched for 'hurricane advice') and will be printing this off to take with us just incase we are unlucky again!!!!

 

[wicket2005]

Thanks snookhams, just printed the tips off.

 

[sue&and]

We were in Kissimmee during hurricane Charley and as our flights were delayed were put up in hotels for two days by Travel City Direct. Friends of ours, who were in a villa, were also accomodated by TCD even though they had only booked a flydrive with them. The villa was booked privately. It obviously depends on the tour operator you travel with but Im sure you wouldn't be left stranded.

 

[matty624]

We were in a villa for Charley last year - although we booked it privatley. The management company should be in touch with you, if you are not evacuated then simple things like putting the pool furniture into the pool (minus the cushions) will help stop the wind picking it up and using it like a missile. We made the walk in closet our headquarters, using the scatter cusions from the setee on the floor and had bottled water and snacks and a small radio, when we had the Tornado warnings for our area we even put a mattress from one of the single beds up against the door as added protection. We have not let it put us off as you can see from our countdown, last year was our 6th visit and the first time anything like that had ever happened!

We were in a private villa last year during Charley too! Bearing in mind it was a cat 4 hurricane, I don't think people in Orlando are ever likely to be evacuated, unless they are in mobile homes. The homes on the coast are another matter, due to the risk of storm surge. The pool furniture is a good idea. Our owner advised us to do the same thing. The following day, it had all disappeared out of the pool! Momentarily, we thought the hurricane (which by the way had completely destroyed the pool) had sucked it out of the water!!! Turned out the owner had changed his mind and had taken it!
The biggest problem we had with Charley, was the lack of power for the 7 days following it. We stuck it out for two days, then when we realised the lights weren't coming back on any time soon, had to relocate to a hotel.
We're going back in a week or so, same (rebuilt!) villa. Hopefully, we wont have anything quite as bad as last year!
Ian

 

[Pigsty333]

I would listen to the local tv stations for more up to the minute information regarding any kind of weather. The weather channel is okay, but is not as concise as the locals, since their main focus is the area you are in.

Items in the pool are a big no-no. People do that mistake all the time and they become airborne projectiles, breaking windows, etc.

Also, by listening to the local stations you are given advice as to what they are doing, curfews, etc.

 

[florry]

we were there for Frances last year and TCD kept us on at Animal Kingdom Lodge and kept us well informed.

The only thing we heard was that people in privately rented villas were not being transfered to hotels at the end of their rental period where as the ones booked through tour operators were. TCD picked up all the costs incurred whilst I understand that the privately rented villa folk transfered to hotels at their own expence. Hotels were booked solid and you stood a better chance if you were with a tour operator in getting a room.

All in all, despite all the media coverage it was not as bad in Kissimmee as it was on the coast. They know exactly what to do and the advice is plentiful. It hasn't put us off -- we go the same time again this year

 

[Queenie]

We were in a villa during Jeanne last year and it wasn't that bad at all. We were advised to stay away from the windows and if it got really bad to move into the central bathroom (which had no windows) until it died down. We lost power for the best part of one day but once the wind had died down we went out to the cars to listen to the news on the radio. One thing I would recommend if a Hurricane is predicted to come near Orlando is to get some bottled water, snacks and a torch in. We survived the day on crisps and bread! During Jeanne the whole area went onto a curfew so you will not be able to leave the villa to buy food, either from a supermarket or a restaurant as they will all be shut.