Ride out crew availability will depend a lot on your area. some areas sign up in July or August.
The hurricanes can be intense. I was there when Charlie hit, that was one of the worst ones in years. For somebody from landlocked Missouri ,it was quite the experience. The parks opened early and then closed at one (the guests weren't charged for the day.) Due to my scheduled in time, I didn't have to work. This was two weeks before my end date, so I figured I would go to the mall and then go to Wal Mart to get packing supplies.
The thing you have to realize about Charlie is that it was supposed to hit the coast as a category 2 and skirt around Orlando. They actually evacuated everybody from Tampa to Orlando thinking that Tampa would be hit and Orlando would be okay! I went to the mall, and was on my way to Wal-Mart when they announced at 2:00pm (the storm hit at 8) that the storm would now be missing Tampa and hitting Orlando full force- and it would be a Cat. 4 when it made landfall!
Wal Mart was a zoo. Everybody was panicked because nobody had prepared- we were told we wouldn't need to! I got what I needed and then tried to get out of there. It was so busy it took me a half hour to get out of their parking lot. It was 3pm by this time (Wal Mart was closing) and there was a squall line coming- a full five hours ahead of the storm. At this time they were doing construction on 192 (this is before the Wal Mart on 535) and it was already a PITA driving there as it was. As I am on 192 it went from day to night in about thirty seconds. It was raining so hard I could maybe see a few inches in front of me. There was nowhere to pull over because of the construction, so everybody just inched along.
I had the radio on and was scared I wouldn't make it back to Vista it was so bad. Suddenly there were tornado warnings for the area I was in. I thought, "You're from tornado alley. You may not know much about hurricanes, but do know that you do
not stay in your car during a tornado! I pulled over into the Monte Carlo motel and asked to wait out the tornado in their office. The guy was from the middle east and had probably never even heard of a tornado before. He told me to go to my car and it would be fine!
I ended up helping some people from Tampa tape their windows, and then once it was decently clear, I got in my car and headed to Vista. It was still pouring and very frightening. I finally got home, and about that time the squall line was done. It was beautiful- the calm before the storm. I had signed up for ride out crew in the MK, but they hadn't put any of the CPs on the list since they figured we would be gone before any hurricanes hit. One of my roommie's was on ride out crew for the Poly, and two stayed in the apartment, one went to a shelter with her friends, and one stayed at her bf's house.
We invited our upstairs neighbors since we lived on the first floor. For the first part of it my roommie and her bf and I played Monopoly with our stuffed animals (the stuffed animals won). We were watching the weather channel, and every time part of LBV lost power our lights flickered. The winds were intense, we looked out the window every so often and the trees were sideways! You could hear what sounded like a shotgun blast as the trees were literally ripped in half. By the grace of God we did not lose power, but most of Orlando and Kissimmee did. When I left two weeks later there were still many places in the area without power!
The next day I took photos of the damage. There were trees and roofing shingles and branches all over Vista. Lightposts were broken, and several trees took out lines of cars in the parking lot. (Thankfully my car was safe). I-4 was backed up to kingdom come with all the people from Tampa trying to get the hell out of dodge since Tampa was fine. It looked like a giant hand had toppled the trees along I-4 like dominoes! If I still have the pictures, I will post them (my old computer died and not all of my pictures transferred).
Most of the time you won't be affected by hurricanes, in 3 advantage CPs (2 spring, 1 fall ) that was the only time I was in. It was only the 4th time in history we closed the parks! (We've done a few more since then, but none were as bad as Charlie).
And again I want to say thanks to all those alumni who have been so helpful to us newbies. Anyways I got to thinking of another question that I haven't seen anyone address yet. Do you realize that fall also means hurricane season. LOL. I was just wondering how many of you non floridians remembered or even thought about that.
. Well anyways my other question is for those of you already in Disney. I was wondering, those of you who did the roommate match up, where you got placed. Thanks. 
Sadly, I looked and my hurricane pictures were ones that did not get transferred when my old computer kicked the bucket. I might have some that I sent to my parents or in my scrapbook collection, but that will take some doing to find them.
I was just wondering if anybody could help me with a few questions I have reguarding the disney career start program. 
