Wilma - Will Orlando feel the winds or rain?

[Bumbles]

Will be interested to see if--after the fact--if there really was a NEED to evacuate FT Wilderness.

hmmm..let's see here, the entire area is under a tornado watch, they're dealing with 30 - 40 mph winds (and gusts that go higher) and people in FW are, for the most part, in tents and travel trailers.

Personally, I think it was wise to evacuate folks out of FW

 

[snowbunny]

Will be interested to see if--after the fact--if there really was a NEED to evacuate FT Wilderness.

That is impossible to know ahead of time. If there was but one badly injured child at FW because it was not evacuated, however, people would be screaming (rightly so) that proper precautions were not taken.

 

[seashoreCM]

One report said the Fort Wilderness guests went to the All Stars, another report said they went to Pop Century.

If you can't use an umbrella properly, it is too windy to enjoy the theme parks.

There is no way to batten down the hatches for tornadoes, we just hope to not get a direct hit. I don't recall Disney closing during just a tornado watch but they probably have some place to herd people although not enough time if a tornado appeared. Except for the Utilidors(tm) under MK, Disney's storm shelters probably could withstand at most an F1 tornado (yes there are categories up to F5).

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

 

[Bumbles]

DUring run of the mill tornado watches, no, they do not close.

But with a hurricane, you often have an extended period of tornado watch combined with rain and strong winds. I agree with snowbunny, it's better to be safe than sorry in this case

 

[Uncleromulus]

Snowbunny:
Yes--of COURSE it's impossible to know ahead of time!! And I know all about precautions.
But I'm still interested to know--after the fact - was it necessary??. That's all. Not should they have done it. They did it.
Were there tornadoes?? Were trailers damaged??

 

[dvcgirl]

Snowbunny:
Yes--of COURSE it's impossible to know ahead of time!! And I know all about precautions.
But I'm still interested to know--after the fact - was it necessary??. That's all. Not should they have done it. They did it.
Were there tornadoes?? Were trailers damaged??

I don't know if there was any damage over there...I didn't hear of any on the news. But we had several tornado *warnings* in the area here in the overnight hours and early this morning. And if the storm took a jog to the northeast at the last minute changing course (like Charley did), those trailers would have been in hurricane force winds. They did the right thing.

 

[Uncleromulus]

Yes. yes. They cerrtainly WOULD have been in hurricane force winds. Were there tornadoes at FW? Was there trailer/camper damage?? That's all I'm asking.
What actually happened--??

 

[miss missy]

I have a friend in the world today... how are things now?

 

[miss missy]

well...

 

[mgkkgdm]

We flew out yesterday at 6pm. The weather yesterday was very windy and rainy all morning. Rain let up at about 12:30 and the wind finally died down around 5pm. DS and I went over to Ohana for breakfast with Stitch and driving over from OLW was not as bad as I had expected. All 4 parks and both water parks and DTD were closed, MK and EPCOT opened at 1pm.

 

[joanb]

DTD opened at 1 and was very crowded

 

[Stitches12]

Just wanted you all to know that we just got back. Arrived Sunday just in time, rain picked up about 2 hours after we arrived.

Parks were closed Monday until 1 pm. I gotta tell ya - we're from Upstate New York and we have worse wind up here in the winter

Disney is fantastic at keeping you advised of everything and they were very accommodating. We spent Monday morning in our room with a little wind and rain but you would never know it. Monday around 12:30, the sun came out and it left as fast as it came in. We never lost power - never missed a beat. Did not hear anything of Fort Wilderness being evacuated. I know we saw trailers in there as we drove by.

Will send a trip report as soon as I get settled. Had a GREAT time.