Tornado Warning at WDW!

[Virgo10]

Hope everything and everyone is OK down there. Although I get quite a few severe thunderstorm warnings, I can't remember the last tornado warning I got from there.

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MELBOURNE FL
535 PM EDT MON AUG 18 2003


THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN MELBOURNE HAS ISSUED A


* TORNADO WARNING FOR...
SOUTHERN ORANGE COUNTY
NORTHWESTERN OSCEOLA COUNTY
IN EAST CENTRAL FLORIDA


* UNTIL 615 PM EDT


* AT 528 PM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED
A TORNADO NEAR KISSIMMEE...MOVING NORTHWEST AT 5 MPH.


* THE TORNADO IS EXPECTED TO BE...
NEAR CAMPBELL...BUENA VENTURA LAKES AT 540 PM EDT
NEAR KISSIMMEE AT 540 PM EDT
NEAR PLEASURE ISLAND...5 MILES SOUTH OF SEA WORLD...6 MILES
SOUTHEAST OF EPCOT...7 MILES EAST OF MGM STUDIOS AT 615 PM EDT

YIKES!

Roberta

 

[tenaseewalker]

Jeeze, I sure hope everyone/everything is OK...

 

[crystalb]

Interesting indeed.
Wouldn't bother us much. We are use to warnings and watches.

 

[dijid]

This begs the question of where do you go when there's a tornado warning at the parks? Do they even have the sirens? Would the CMs take you underground somewhere?

Nearly 5 years ago, I had the frightening experience of a too-close call with a tornado. Luckily, I was safe in my basement, but people a mile away who were asleep in their beds were killed. Since then, I've been hyper-sensitive to tornado warnings.

 

[scanmom]

we have tornado warnings around here every spring. and yes, I have seen a tornado first hand! SCARY!!. I know that if we were in the MK and I heard a siren, or knew of a tornado....we would hoof it to the utility tunnels! No one could stop me from getting down there!!! At any of the other parks, I guess I would try to find the closest lowest spot I could...and start praying!

 

[Geoff_M]

...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED
A TORNADO NEAR KISSIMMEE...

The warning does bring up the interesting question of "what do you do?", but this part of the warning is worth explaining. The NWS is now more and more using computer software to "spot" tornadoes. Basically if the computer looks at the radar image and sees something that looks like a tornado "signature" it declares a warning. The technology is still improving, but it's right less than 1/2 the time. There are lots of things that "look" like a tornado on radar, but aren't. I'm an active storm spotter in the local ham radio community, and we've been caught off-guard by a number of these computer generated warnings. The local guys will be stationed around the county during a thunderstorm and suddenly we get a tornado warning over NOAA weather radio. It's a bit confusing because no one has reported seeing anything resembling a twister and no such reports have come in after the warning was issued.

This doesn't mean you should ignore computer generated warnings, but I only get ready to hop into a shelter when I hear one. Hopefully the NWS software will improve and we can eliminate the false alarms.

 

[madge]

on our local news last night, the weather man tracked this storm from 5-6:30pm...apparently it was a funnel cloud that never reached the ground, according to the spotter reports he had.

it does make you wonder what to do if there is need to take shelter ASAP...

 

[PatriciaH]

During the hurricane in 1999 (when the parks closed early) they moved people at certain resorts (I think Yacht and Beach) to lower lying resorts. We were at POFQ and were not moved.

 

[GeorgeY]

It was a very nasty storm last night. Probably the worst all summer. There are plans in place at the parks if the threat is real, and last night it seemed real, we had both our kids in the kitchen with us watching the TV, ready to head to our safe room if needed.

George

 

[jann1033]

just an interesting side in regard to accuracy..unfortunately it goes both ways! sometimes it doesn't pick them up. a few years ago i almost got in the way of a f1( actually i did get in the way but was able to get out in time, my little Saturn never moved so fast!) and cause it was little ( and evidently something about the location I live in) the meterologist said larger storms"masked " it( don't quite understand) but scared the living daylight' s out of me so would take anything you see or hear seriously no matter if there is a warning or not!

 

[TerriP]

I just spoke with my sister who is on vacation at WDW right now. Last night, right after the Stars and Motorcars Parade, she said the sky turned grey very quickly and the most spectacular storm opened up. They ate dinner at Primetime and, since it wasn't letting up, decided to head back to WL. She said they sat on their balcony and watched the lightening...she said it was like nothing she'd seen before. She knew nothing of a tornado in the area and had not even heard of it until I asked about it.

Not too sure how smart she was to sit outside buuuuutttt....

 

[BuckeyeBelle]

Well, we were in a towncar on the way to the Orlando Airport last night when the Tornado Warning came across. Even though we were a few miles from the reported funnel, the storm still very severe with high winds and blinding rain.

To complicate things, there was a huge accident about a half hour before that shut down I-4, so all the alternate routes were jammed with traffic. All those people were stuck in their cars during the tornado warning. Our driver just kept going ... I have no idea how he saw the road to drive. It was the scariest trip to the airport I've ever taken. He did get us there in time to board our flight (barely); thankfully there was no line at all at security or we probably would have missed it. The plane sat on the runway for an hour while before we were cleared for takeoff. I think this was the first time ever I was glad to get home from Disney World.

But I still can't wait to go back. Next trip planned for June '04!

 

[AngieBelle]

Disney has several different evacuation plans in case of emergencies so I'm sure they're prepared.

 

[DisneyDiver]

What are the likes of the buildings at Old Key West made of? I presume it's concrete with steel panelling - in which case, would I be right in thinking that all you would have to do is sit in the centremost room with the windows open, and you'd be pretty safe?

We were in OKW two years back when there was a tornado touchdown a few miles off - the trees outside were parallel with the ground, the wind was roaring, and I was genuinely afraid.

Normally I love a bit of storm watching of an evening in disney - out on the balcony watching the rain come down and the lighting flash across the sky. Spectacular.

 

[TammiMcMan]

DH and I were in the MK a few years ago when a tornado touched down in Kissimmee. Things didn't look too bad when we stepped off the monorail, other than rain had started falling pretty heavily. By the time we had made our way over to Tomorrowland though, the sky was turning very dark and Disney people were coming out of the woodwork. They were clearing rides and footpaths just as quickly as they could. We were ushered into the Aliens building and stayed for about 20 minutes before getting the all clear. The tornado stayed miles away, but Disney seemed to be very organized and took great care to get everyone into someplace safe.

 

[Chia Pet]

Originally posted by AngieBelle
Disney has several different evacuation plans in case of emergencies so I'm sure they're prepared.

that's probably very true AngieBelle, but tornadoes don't lend themselves to offering up a lot of time to distribute such plans.....

 

[michygoomy]

We were there when it happened, though at the time I didn't know there was a tornado warning.

We were at AK walking through the Mahraja (sp?) Jungle Trek. It had started getting cloudy and dark and sprinkling, which was nothing new to us. I was trying to take a picture of a tiger when through my viewfinder in my camera I saw a huge bolt of lightening hit the ground. Yikes.

We started walking out, it was time to leave anyway, when we ran across a CM along the way who told us to take shelter in a stone building just ahead. I asked why, and he said the storm was right above us. Well, we had seen so many storms that week, and didn't take him that seriously. We kept walking to the bus stop.

It got really, really dark, was pouring rain, and the lightening was like nothing I've ever seen before. And here we are standing under this flimsy shelter with a billion other people waiting for the bus. Really, there were ground bolts hitting all around us (not RIGHT by us, but you could see them all).

We got on the bus and made it back to the resort. My DD and I stopped so she could get a hair wrap done, and while waiting I overheard a CM saying over a radio that they were going to stop bus service. I couldn't believe it! What about all those people standing and waiting at the bus stops!

I didn't really believe they'd do it, but Tyler here on the board confimed that they did stop bus service for about 25 minutes.

We got back to the room and saw the radar on the weather channel, and it was pretty amazing because it looked like 3 storms converged over WDW. At the time I don't think they were showing tornado warnings anymore, just severe T-storm warnings.

We chose to go back out to PI. On the ride over, the lightening was still incredible, only this time it was more cross-cloud lightening rather than cloud-to-ground.

It was great timing for us to go to PI, since we were taking the kids. I think the massive rain kept away most of the adult crowd and we had a really good time at PI.

The funny thing--I'm actually quite T-storm phobic, but for some reason the WDW T-storms don't scare me like they do when I'm at home. It's like there is a magic bubble over WDW and no harm can come to us.

 

[DisneyDiver]

Did I not read/hear somewhere that some of the buildings at WDW are specifically hardened against Hurricanes and the like? You'd imagine that the Imagineers thought about what's likely to hit Disney over the years when they were putting the place together...

 

[pintrader]

bldgs are constructed with hurricane and tornado forces in mind. You would be amazed just how specific the wather information is to WDW. Plans can be implemented on just a moment's notice. Especially after 9-11 WDW has majority of managers and security on radios and all CMs are trained on emergency evacuation routes. You would never believe how orchestrated it can be !!

If it weren't so scarry it would be enjoyable to watch, it happens with such precision.

 

[nativetxn]

Well, YIKES! I'm at the Dolphin right now and I didn't even know that we were under a tornado warning.

Turned out alright, though