HURRICANE INFORMATION (AUGUST 15, 2004): All parks except TL are OPEN

[bjakmom]

What a tragedy for so many !!

My sister and her boys made it through the night in the airport Hyatt - I was able to get through on the phone to her at 10 PM and tell her that the eye had passed the airport - they had lost all power at about 9, and were prepared to shut themselves into the bathroom if necessary. They were not allowed into the hallways as there were apparently some windows there also. She said it was terrifying - before the sky became completely black they spotted a funnel cloud forming in the distance. They clocked wind speeds of 110 at the airport. At about 7:30 they had gone down to the airport foodcourt to eat and they were clearing those areas (under the glass domes) and sending the people stranded in the airport down to the baggage claim areas for the night. This morning they got their rental car (very nice Nat'l rep upgraded them to a minivan for a very good price) and headed to her friend's just south of Cocoa Beach. She said when they looked out from the 9th floor this morning it was a disaster- they saw an upside-down plane at the airport. There were downed and uprooted trees all over. Well, I am very lucky to know that my family is safe, though shaken.

My niece and her family in Seminole, west of Tampa, are also fine and spending the day taking down their plywood and cleaning up from some minor flooding.

My sister's fr-in-law had evacuated his mobile home community in Ft. Meyers and got back in this morning - the home next to his lost it's roof, but he only lost his porch - the home across the street lost it's windows and suffered water damage. Having lost both his only son and his wife in the past year, he is feeling very fortunate that he didn't also loose his home and possessions.

Thanks to everyone for keeping each other updated - ! My thoughts and prayers are with those of you who suffered any loss! We are heading down next Saturday, so we will closely watch these two new systems!

And if you want to help, please send $$ to the Red Cross - we collect and ship for the servicemen and women through the Red Cross and it takes forever to collect, sort, store and ship all the items - and a good percentage of what's donated is not even usable or shippable! If you send a $$ donation, they can put it directly where it is needed!

 

[sugermouse]

Does anyone have an update on the Hurricane damage at WDW???

 

[laceemouse]

Someone on the resort board has posted pix, mostly trees down, signs twisted, and some roof tiles blown off. We have family north of Orlando and they are fine except for lots of down trees, they can't get their car out of the garage! Orlando is pretty inland, the coast got the worst of it.

 

[Figment56]

Bjak,

We will be leaving next Saturday too! Maybe we will see you on Main Street-Happy 50TH!

 

[NotUrsula]

Forgive me if someone has noted this already. Southwest Airlines has suspended operations at MCO for the rest of today (Saturday, Aug 14th) due to water; SWA's gates have sustained some rather severe roof damage, and rainwater is coming in. They hope to get flights out tomorrow. Some other airlines may be posting notices, too; I just checked SWA b/c I'm due to go through there on Aug. 26th. The other airlines that use the gates in that concourse are JetBlue, AirTran and Spirit.

According to the Sentinel, three of the four airside concourses have rather nasty roof damage. I expect that on-time performanace for MCO will be cockeyed for awhile, as they are going to be short of gates until they get those roofs replaced.

 

[safetymom]

There are many areas here in Central Fl. that were hit quite hard.

WDW seems to have survived quite well. Lots of trees down and twisted signs but nothing major.

 

[disgolfer]

I am sure that this has been covered, but what reports have you guys heard? I called today to make priority seating arrangements and asked if there are any damages, and they said that everything is good. Does anyone know what really happened?

 

[safetymom]

Trees are down, signs are down or twisted but the parks are up and running except AK.

 

[Connor&Cody'sMom]

I just heard on the news that AK is closed due to a staffing shortage. Makes sense-a lot of people probably can't make it into work with trees down, power out, etc.

 

[lenshanem]

Can anyone confirm damage to DTD and Cirque's top coming off?

Any word about Sea World or Universal?

 

[Moosysmom]

My brother went up and checked on our folks home, outside Davenport (actually Loughman). They are up north for the summer. There are quite a few CM's in the area and there is no power, lots of trees down and roofs, and few badly damaged homes. I'm in Lakeland, down the road from Disney, and it was scary here with just the high winds. My dog was pretty shook up and glad when it was over.
My thoughts and prayers to all CM's and Dis'ers near the area where the storm hit.

 

[peaches]

I was just wondering after reading another post, Did they park the monorails noise to tail inside the contemporary? Did anyone get any photos?

 

[peter11435]

Originally posted by peaches
I was just wondering after reading another post, Did they park the monorails noise to tail inside the contemporary? Did anyone get any photos?

The Monorails were parked safely in the roundhouse.

 

[Lisa AF]

Can anyone confirm damage to DTD and Cirque's top coming off?

We were there today as they made repairs to Cirque's. It was not the top but the sail in front that came off. They have removed the steel structure and trimmed the canvas of the sails off.

We went and looked at Port Orleans and Caribbean Beach. What was amazing was to see so much debris everywhere and trees uprooted. I've just never seen Disney not perfect. The amount of work to make repairs is astounding. We talked with some of the CM's. They said they would be rich with all the overtime they would be getting. I have pictures. When I get home I'll try to figure out how to post them.

 

[DelitefulDory]

I just have to take a moment to say this...maybe because this hit so close to home, maybe because I still remember the horrible aftermath of Andrew, whatever.
For those of you worried how this will affect your "vacation", please, take 5 minutes of your time and think of all the hundreds of people missing in Port Charlotte. Charley is more than a mere inconvience for you, it is a hurricane who took the lives of hundreds, took the homes and memories of thousands, and at the very least, left a million without electricity or water. If I sound mean, honestly I don't mean to, but WDW, as much as I love it, can be rebuilt, can be cleaned up, but many, many lives here in Florida cannot.

 

[GeekChic]

don't worry, i think that most people here (myself included) have expressed our concerns for the people, not the property, or upcoming vacations. and many of us have posted about the importance of donating funds to the red cross to help the victims of the storm. we have our priorities straight!

a lot more people here have relatives in FL than you may realize! myself, included.

geek

 

[kerry34]

It's funny how at times we all seem to take our lives for granted until something bad happens and it puts everything into perspective. My heart goes out to all those folks who have had their lives taken or changed forever by this storm. It is scary how just one event can change a persons life drastically, and sometimes permanently. Last year my husband served in Afghanistan with his National Guard unit, there were a few times after seeing bombings on tv where he was stationed, that I wasn't sure if he was hurt or even alive. I remember thinking of all the things that I had taken for granted in my marriage, but up until then I never realized how often I did this. I know that he experienced the same things when he saw bad things happen to people. Sometimes late at night when I can't sleep I just look at him, and thank god that he is there with me, because so many people have had it worse. Anyway, my point to all this is, sometimes something has to happen to a person to make them really think about how worse it always is for someone else out there. I know when I take my next Disney trip I will be counting my blessings that my family is together, but I will also be thinking of those people who lost their lives that never got that next trip.

 

[LibertyBelle]

As stated there was a lot of trees down around property as well as twisted signs. The Animal Kingdom did not open today so I don't know how it was over there, but when I arrived at MK this morning at 6am it was pretty bad. They did an amazing job of cleaning so that they could have the park open by 9am. Jungle Cruise was opened late as there was quite abit of work to be done there with the trees and the steam trains did not open. We had LOTS of trees blown onto the train tracks and some show scenes got hit pretty hard along the tracks. They were planning to get them up and running by 2pm but then we got a really nasty storm and they decided just to start sending CM's (from the trains) home.

I was over at Downtown Disney and the Cirque Du Soleil theater took quite a beating. The building itself was fine and the show did go on tonight without issues, but the front of the building looks BAD. The Canvas that comes down to make it look like a tent was just torn away. They cleaned the area and secured the support beams and the show went on AMC theater had some damage as well (blown out windows and their marquies was not looking to hot) but they were open as well.

There are still a lot of areas throughout Central Florida without power and/or water and they have said it could be days before this is restored. We took a pretty good hit even though we are inland they clocked some of the winds as high as 110mph.

O and by the way...just wanted to through this out there because I know you guys would appreciate it as much as I did... I had one family that was in MK today actually thank me for coming itno work so that they could play. I thought that was very nice

 

[LibertyBelle]

Hi all after a long day I am back home to report in First I started my day off with Job #1 Magic Kingdom (I work on the Steam Trains). There was a lot of trees down, traffic signals ripped down (and others just not working), there were signs snapped in half and some windows blown out but all in all things are looking ok. MK at 6:30am this morning looked BAD but they did an awesome job to get it cleaned up and ready for a 9am opening. Jungel Cruise was delayed in their opening as they were clearing debris from the river and the Steam Trains did not open. We had so many trees down on the train tracks and through our show scenes (the indian village). They tried to get us up and running by 2pm but then a really nasty storm came through and they decided just to staty closed and started sending people home.

As for Animal Kingdom they had decided not to open it before I even left for work at 5:30am so it was not a staffing issue (they deployed all their CM's to other locations throughout property to help out). As far as I know all the animals faired well, they just needed the time to clear debris and make sure the animals reaclimated to their areas.

On to job #2...Cirque. I work in reatil at Cirque so the scoop on that is, the front of the building (where you would enter sustained some damage. As was stated it was not the "roof" the building is structurally sound and was not damaged. If you have seen the building there are Giant Canavas "sails" that come down from about half way up the building to the ground to make it feel more like you are entering a tent. Well, those canvas peices in the front portion (in front of the store, box office, entrance) were torn down by the wind and some of the cables that hold the posts for them were snapped. It looks a lot worse than it actually is. They secured the area and the shows went on as scheduled tonight.

 

[betterlatethannever]

Thanks for the report LibertyBelle.

There have been some reports that Monorail Red had/caused some problems. Since you "live" right below them do you know what happened?

Thanks.

Ed