Tornado Warning- What does Disney do?

[drp4video]

We were at POP for Hurricane Charley and they informed us of everything that was going on. THe parks closed at 1:00 p.m. that day, August 13th, a Friday, and while we had an annual pass, those that didn't, well, they didn't count that day toward's their pass. My daughter's friend only had a 4 day hopper, so she actually got a 1/2 day free in the parks as the 13th was not counted as a day.

Food court was very crowded at POP as all the parks closed at 1:00 and everyone headed for food.

It was kind of scary, but disney updated up with flyers and with phone messages all day and into the evening. FOod court was closed, but they handed out free chips. Lots of trading was going on for fave brands of chips LOL. I figured the food court would close, so when we got back from the parks, I bought extra food at lunch, and brought it back to the room.

 

[WhatAWonderfulDay]

I really enjoyed reading about all your weather experiences at Disney. Thank you for all the replies!

 

[aribelle]

Tornado watch and tornado warning are two separate things. Watch means conditions are ripe for an event in the watch area. Warning means one has been spotted either visually or on radar. In the event of an actual warning of a tornado that was heading towards WDW, I'm sure they would evacute to safe areas. If they are operating as normal during a watch it means there is no threatening weather in the vicinity.

Oh and for the wimp who couldnt live in FL, tornadoes have happened just about everywhere in the US and Canada at some point in time. We get warnings in the DC metro area a couple of times a year outside of tropical weather. We just had a tornado watch Tuesday night. We had high winds, t-storms and rain, but no torndoes. I've lived in TX, MD and RI as well as different areas in VA, and all have had severe weather. FL does have a higher risk this time of year due to weather patterns, but outside of tropical storms/hurricanes, they dont' have as many tornadoes as, say, Oklahoma or Kansas (tornado alley). I'm just happy I have a basement in my house and where I work is a large building with a basement too.

Wimp here, I've lived in the Southwest for almost a decade now and never had a tornado watch/warning that I'm aware of....moved here from California where the earthquakes just suddenly happen, no warning, no three days of news coverage for an event that fizzles out and doesn't happen.....just boom shiver shake rattle and roll and it's done. I'll take that anyday....I don't want to know it's coming! Survived many earthquakes, including the deadly one where the road collapsed....I was on the top level of that road when it went down. Not fun, not something I want to ever do again, but with no warning you didn't have time to build up the hysteria, and I like that a lot better. Though some insider knowledge ahead of time and maybe I could have stayed at work a little longer that night! But hey....I was already angry because I was supposed to be off early to get home in time for the World Series. By the time I made it home 3 days later I found that the TV entertainment center had fallen directly onto the recliner chair that I would have been sitting in....so I got over being late!

Yeah, give me a nice earthquake or blistering 120 degree heat for days on end over a hurricane or tornado anytime!

 

[Selket]

We were staying at AKL (date in my sig - I can't remember the year - LOL!) and there was a tornado warning for the WDW area. We saw it on the tv and wondered what to do. Apparently at the hotel they did nothing except close the pool (closed anyway cause of thunderstorms).

We were told later that a tornado or at least high winds hit DtD and did damage there - perhaps to the awning or something at Cirque De Soliel.

What *are* you supposed to do if you are in your hotel room? Go downstairs? Stay put? We took off for the lower level of the hotel and was surprised to see things just going on like normal. The weather was terrible though!

 

[RMulieri]

I don't know what Disney does..But I do know what I did when a freak F3 ripped through my Pennsylvania house 4 yrs ago...I ran and hid under the basement stairs....I wonder what you would do if you were at wdw ?

 

[BeckyScott]

I think I must be jaded.

As a previous poster pointed out, there is a big difference between a tornado watch and a tornado warning. Gosh, around here, a tornado watch we just go about our business as usual.

There are also two types of tornado warnings- one is if a tornado has actually been spotted, and the other is if conditions are very favorable but nobody's really seen one yet.

The actually-spotted is more like an "oh &%(^" situation. The "conditions favorable" is more like okay, let's find the best spot to hang out and listen to the radio, but we're not going to freak out yet.

However, because I'm in the Midwest and our town does have history of being in the direct path, we have a really good weather-spotting and warning system in place. We all know the drill.

Selket- I don't know the Disney protocol, but what it should be is that #1 you're supposed to go to a basement. But there aren't any. So then you pick an interior hallway or room with no windows on the lowest floor you can get to. If it has concrete walls, all the better. In a true emergency, get in the bathtub and put blankets and even the mattress on top of you. (yes we've had local people do that, and when it was all over the only thing left of their house was the bathtub)

 

[RMulieri]

I think I must be jaded.

As a previous poster pointed out, there is a big difference between a tornado watch and a tornado warning. Gosh, around here, a tornado watch we just go about our business as usual.

There are also two types of tornado warnings- one is if a tornado has actually been spotted, and the other is if conditions are very favorable but nobody's really seen one yet.

The actually-spotted is more like an "oh &%(^" situation. The "conditions favorable" is more like okay, let's find the best spot to hang out and listen to the radio, but we're not going to freak out yet.

However, because I'm in the Midwest and our town does have history of being in the direct path, we have a really good weather-spotting and warning system in place. We all know the drill.

Selket- I don't know the Disney protocol, but what it should be is that #1 you're supposed to go to a basement. But there aren't any. So then you pick an interior hallway or room with no windows on the lowest floor you can get to. If it has concrete walls, all the better. In a true emergency, get in the bathtub and put blankets and even the mattress on top of you. (yes we've had local people do that, and when it was all over the only thing left of their house was the bathtub)

Your right about tornado maneuvers...I laugh about the bathtub because when that F3 hit my neighbors house, they found her bathtub in the cornfields 4 miles away...luckily she wasn't in it.Till this day(4 yrs later) I hang out in the basement , even during tornado watches...bad memories I guess.

 

[goofy4tink]

We arrived on Aug 13 (Friday the 13th no less!!) 2004, about 5 hrs. before H. Charley did. We were at the CR and they did a remarkable job keeping the guests safe. AK didn't open the next day and MGM opened late. MK and Epcot opened on time. I have to say....if you have to be someplace during a hurricane, WDW is the place to be. Funny thing is....those in Tampa had been told the hurricane was making groundfall right there, at Tampa Bay. So, what did the residents do? Yep, drove to Orlando and tried to get rooms at WDW. Naturally, the forecasters were wrong and it flew right over WDW..nice.

But, as far as tornado watches....we were actually on the monorail when there was a watch/warning. I guess it was a warning more than a watch. We had gotten on the monorail at the Polynesian, about 2:30 pm. The weather was hot, but it was August! Sunny skies. By the time we got to the monorail platform in MK, the sky had turned black. We were not allowed to leave the platform!! The monorail came to a halt...no cars going or coming. We were kept there for about 40 mins...while the worst thunderstorm I have ever witnessed raged all around us...talk about surroundsound!! Lighting that was just unbelievable. It got so dark that the lights actually started coming on. That's when we heard them announce that there had been a tornado spotted over in the Epcot area!!! So..no monorails were running..of course.
We finally got tired of standing around, and ran for it. It did rain, off and on, the rest of the night, but it was warm rain. Oh, this was back in '03...yep August is a fun time to go!!!

 

[mickeysgirl17]

I was at the pirate and princess party on August 24th, 2007. Unfortunatley, it was a horrible horrible night. There were storms from probably around 4pm to 10:30pm. It hadn't stopped all night! These were bad storms too. Lightning was literally touching the ground in fantasyland.
We had heard that schools were closed in the area and that there were several tornado warnings that took place.
After asking a few CM's, we were told that we couldn't get our tickets exchanged for another night or get our money back so we decided to try to stick it out. I didn't like how disney went about communicating with their guests. We later found out that they were exchanging tickets after we had already left the park.
A lot of CM's were also confused about what events were going to take place. Some said the parades would be canceled, some said they would be postphoned.
One lady said the fireworks would defenetely take place since they don't normally cancel the fireworks unless of a major problem.
We literally sat at the central hub and waited for the fireworks with 2 toddlers at 9pm in the rain (it was just a light rain now), but the fireworks never started. There was no announcement about the fireworks either, instead they announced that the 10:45 parade may or may not take place. Everyone was wondering about the fireworks.
We decided to leave the park.
The next day on the dis, I found out that lightning struck the fireworks area behind the castle and I think I remember something about a small fire. Still, the park remained open and no one was sure of anything. In the end the fireworks did take place, but it was after I left. I was so looking forward to these.
I also found out that they gave out free admission to 1 day to MK after I left so I wrote to disney and they assured me that if I kept my Pirate/Princess tickets, that I could use those to get into MK for 1 day for a year.
None of the special pirate/princess events took place. We couldn't find any characters that were scheduled to appear except Jack sparrow.
The candy/beads locations were also moved and we had no idea where to go.

 

[michygoomy]

But, as far as tornado watches....we were actually on the monorail when there was a watch/warning. I guess it was a warning more than a watch. We had gotten on the monorail at the Polynesian, about 2:30 pm. The weather was hot, but it was August! Sunny skies. By the time we got to the monorail platform in MK, the sky had turned black. We were not allowed to leave the platform!! The monorail came to a halt...no cars going or coming. We were kept there for about 40 mins...while the worst thunderstorm I have ever witnessed raged all around us...talk about surroundsound!! Lighting that was just unbelievable. It got so dark that the lights actually started coming on. That's when we heard them announce that there had been a tornado spotted over in the Epcot area!!! So..no monorails were running..of course.
We finally got tired of standing around, and ran for it. It did rain, off and on, the rest of the night, but it was warm rain. Oh, this was back in '03...yep August is a fun time to go!!!

I think we were there the same time.

We were at AK in the Maharajah Jungle Trek when it started to storm. No big deal, we started walking slowly to the exit. Well, a CM came up and told us to take shelter in a "stone" building up ahead. Well, it wasn't a building, and I really doubt it was actually "stone". So we just kept going. The CMs were trying to get everyone in some sort of sheltered area, but instead everyone was just heading for the exit. The bus stop was crowded and a long wait, and I saw the most incredible lightening I've ever seen in my life. We managed to get back to the resort, but I heard later that all the buses and monorials had stopped running. I felt really lucky that we got a bus and were snuggled in our room for the rest of the day, and felt bad for everyone who was stuck.

It was later that I heard there were actual tornado warnings. No one mentioned that while it was happening.

 

[Feralpeg]

Tornado watches happen on a regular basis in Florida. Most of the time, they amount to nothing. We carry on with life as normal. When there is a warning, we do the only thing you can do in Florida. We go to an interior space and hope that it doesn't hit us. Fortunately, most tornadoes cut a fairly narrow swatch.

Hurricanes are another story. We get a lot of advanced warning. In the central part of the state, you really just need to prepare by bringing in objects that might be tossed about in the wind and then stay put inside until it passes. A lot of staying safe during a hurricane is to make sure your property is hurricane safe well in advance. Keeping trees trimmed and your roof in good repair makes a huge difference. I have a coating on the windows of my home that will withstand an object thrown at 120 mph. I really don't worry about hurricanes. Living on the coast is a different story!

Disney really doesn't shut down for the weather. If there were a tornado warning in the area, they would ask people to go to the interior of the buildings. Most areas do not have tunnels or any type of underground structures. When you think about it, you really get very little warning of a tornado. If one were spotted near WDW, it would be very difficult to get everyone undercover quick enough. Depending on where people are, it might be hard to alert everyone and it could cause a panic. Fortunately, the odds are that WDW will never be hit by a tornado.

The funny thing is that people are much more likely to be harmed by lightening in Florida than by another other weather phenomena, yet many people do not take it seriously. Those of us who live in Florida have great respect for lightening. You won't see me out walking around when there is lightening in the area. Yet, I see tourists walking around like it is no big deal. That is why we hear of so many people hit by lightening each year in this area.

 

[Hollywoodhaha]

For tornado watches in florida, I live in florida, we carry on like nothing is happening.

All we do is turn off the expensive t.v.s and dont be in the shower and just sit there.

It is typical for us.

 

[Angel Ariel]

PAFB is nowhere near the park . . . .i that was the base.

Patrick is about an hour maybe an hour and a half from Disney.

MacDill AFB near Tampa is about the same distance. Those two are the closest I know of.

 

[Dsnymouse]

My family and I were in Disney in 05 for Hurricane Wilma. We stayed on the property. Thought it was not a tornado, Disney was great in informing us of weather conditions. We recieved serveral calls to our room. Some people do not know this, but Disney is a shelter for Florida residence in times of bad weather. That made me feel safe. It was an experience to "be in" a hurricane, but Disney has it covered. All parks shut down, one reopened in the evening. Disney brought charcters to the lobby of the hotel for the kids, I thought that was very cool in the midst of what was happening. We had a character dinner set up the evening of the hurricane and we were still able to attend. All in all I think Disney knows what they are doing and want to make sure guest are taken care of. I know we still talk fondly of our "adventure" at Disney that year!

 

[MI mom of 3]

On one of our trips to Disney, I believe it was June of 1999, my sister-in-law and Iwere in Epcot with the kids. The husbands were playing golf. We were walking around the lagoon when I see all these people standing around, looking up. Of course I stop and look up, not having any idea what I am supposed to be looking at when it dawns on my I am actually looking at a small funnel cloud!!! So being the complete idiot that I am...I take out the video camera and start filming it!!

A CM came over and got all of us who were standing in that area and led us all into HISTA. They had hundreds of people sitting on the floor inside the pre-show area. We had to wait for an all clear. While we were waiting the CM's were calling kids up to the front to the microphone to tell their best jokes. In talking to the CM's I was told that everyone in the park had been herded into the attractions.

After about 2 hours of this DH calls on our walkie-talkies. Apparently they were allowing guests into the park but the CM's at HISTA weren't allowing us out yet. A miscommunication at best. He and BIL were outside walking around. He said a lot of the attractions were open. When we were let out the weather was beautiful.

It was aggravating but made me feel good that Disney DOES have a plan for bad weather.

 

[smphbear]

It was early June 2004. Our last night, we went to MK to redo some favorites. My DH, our son, my sister, and my niece headed off to see Mickey. The rain started pouring down in sheets. While in line where they show the movie, we saw a blink after lightning, and the movie quit playing. When we finished seeing Mickey,they would not let us out of the tent. We were walked through the backstage area where the cast lockers were. They brought us into the store area to wait.

My mom and other sister had gone off to see Mickey's Philharmagic again. My mom said that the cast members started clearing the open areas. She said that they had people seated on the "floor" of the carousel and anywhere else that they could put them safely. She is highly claustrophobic. She and many of her new best friends were crammed into the waiting area of Philharmagic. The cast members asked for patience. They said they needed to get as many people inside as possible for safety. The worst part was when they saw lightning hit a building. Then, it turns out that the lightning messed up part of the show, and they were never able to see it that night.

It was one of those summer thunderstorms that blow in and out quickly, but it certainly was a memorable way to end our vacation.

 

[supersuperwendy]

we were there for Hurricane Jean and do not recall any ride closures, but the brunt of the storm hit and followed us to Tampa for the day. We live in the Pocono Mtns of PA and actually have had a tornado touch down 1 mile from our home. So as OP said you really can have a tornado anywhere.

and there was that one in Limmerick a few years ago too! Yikes!

When I was on my honeymoon there was a tornado warning, I called the front desk at the Boardwalk and the girl who answered told me to just remain in the room or come down to the lobby if it made me feel better!

 

[mickeysgirl17]

I also happen to live in Florida. A little over 2 hours from WDW, in Jacksonville. We actually just had tornado warnings yesterday in my area. I know some people who live in FL just go on with their normal everyday lives, but it scares me because I'm not really used to it. I'm from NYC, and even though there are storm there, I don"t really think they compare to the storms here in FL.

 

[mmcguire]

I was at the pirate and princess party on August 24th, 2007. Unfortunatley, it was a horrible horrible night. There were storms from probably around 4pm to 10:30pm. It hadn't stopped all night! These were bad storms too. Lightning was literally touching the ground in fantasyland.
We had heard that schools were closed in the area and that there were several tornado warnings that took place.
After asking a few CM's, we were told that we couldn't get our tickets exchanged for another night or get our money back so we decided to try to stick it out. I didn't like how disney went about communicating with their guests. We later found out that they were exchanging tickets after we had already left the park.
A lot of CM's were also confused about what events were going to take place. Some said the parades would be canceled, some said they would be postphoned.
One lady said the fireworks would defenetely take place since they don't normally cancel the fireworks unless of a major problem.
We literally sat at the central hub and waited for the fireworks with 2 toddlers at 9pm in the rain (it was just a light rain now), but the fireworks never started. There was no announcement about the fireworks either, instead they announced that the 10:45 parade may or may not take place. Everyone was wondering about the fireworks.
We decided to leave the park.
The next day on the dis, I found out that lightning struck the fireworks area behind the castle and I think I remember something about a small fire. Still, the park remained open and no one was sure of anything. In the end the fireworks did take place, but it was after I left. I was so looking forward to these.
I also found out that they gave out free admission to 1 day to MK after I left so I wrote to disney and they assured me that if I kept my Pirate/Princess tickets, that I could use those to get into MK for 1 day for a year.
None of the special pirate/princess events took place. We couldn't find any characters that were scheduled to appear except Jack sparrow.
The candy/beads locations were also moved and we had no idea where to go.

We were there the same night, and it was truly AWFUL. It was the last night of our trip, and it had not rained all week. The storms started around 3 PM, and we thought it would eventually let up, but it didn't until well after 10 PM. My mom has severe lung disease, and didn't need to be out in it, so my DH drove her & my dad back to our rental home and met us later. The boats were running, because he took the ferry to & from from the parking lot.

The kids and I stayed, but we were soaked all night, and none of the CMs seemed to know what was going on. We didn't find out until the early parade was to start that it had been cancelled. They did finally end up doing the parade and fireworks VERY late, but a lot of people had left and DD fell asleep because it was so late. It was a rotten way to end a trip.