Severe Weather?

Saturday I was at Kings Island when some pretty bad weather moved in! There was tornados spotted in the area and tornado watches/warning for the Mason area! I was about to ride the Fairly Odd Coaster (I know not very fun but wanted to get every coaster in the park done) when they closed it due to rain! I then headed towards Beast figuring it would blow over and I would wait it out! The rain started coming down hard and the wind started gusting pretty strong. So I ran to the front of the park to meet up in a gift shop! When I got to the gift shop loud sirrens went off and the warning went over the parks intercome! Security then came and rounded everyone up off the midway and in the lines and sent them into the stores/building and told them to stay in the back with heads down. After an hour in the store with about 200 people they finally let us go back onto the 5 inches of rain flooded midways to leave the park since it was 10.

I was wondering if Cedar Point has a severe weather system? Where do you go?

*PS: I did have an awsome day at KI and Diamond back is now in my top 5! And I thought it was so funny because the fountains were on doing a light show during all of this!*

I have no clue, and you forgot an E in the title.

^Thanks! I didn't even notice! I don't know how to fix it though, I tried in edit but it is not updating on the main screen.

I was there once and the storms were pretty bad. I never seen or heard a siren or warning signs over the intercom! Here is a link on a severe weather sory at cdedar point in 1998. They have probaly revised there severe weather plan because it seems like the employees are alot more trained than they were 10 years ago!
Sorry if i didn't help :)

link> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI27jlwNk2E

My cousin was at KI Saturday and he said they were crammed in the freezer in Larossa's. Sounds exciting to me. :)

I am not sure if CP has a tornado siren or really any formal plan as much as it is just a round up the guests when it gets bad enough scenario. I know the few times we were told to take shelter last summer we were told to inform the guests to seek shelter as well, and in my crew's case if needed we were to tell them to follow us into the employee cafeteria. I would imagine that the main place employees would instruct guests in the front half of the park to go to would be the main arcade.

Speaking of severe weather, I've just had two power surges in the last few minutes. Anyone in central Ohio would be wise to watch out, as this is a really nasty line of weather blowing through. I'm surprised there hasn't been a tornado watch/warning.

Tornado watch in my area now as I type. I love this weather!

Yeah it wasn't to fun sitting in the Emporium Gift shop for 45 minutes while security yelled at people to get in the back of the store or go follow an employee to the back room! They let us go from the Emporium and were then sent back to the Sky line Chili, it was horrible, gross smell. Those sirens are horribly load!

Hey my video :) Cedar Point, as far as I know, has no real measures for Severe Weather other than closure of rides.

There was a weak tornado that passed within 1000 feet of the NWS Office in Wilmington on Saturday. Pretty nuts. Sounds like there was no damage, but because the NWS saw it, it was rated EF-0.

My advice is to be aware of the weather, and buy a cheap NOAA Weather Radio. It'll go off well before you're in danger at Cedar Point.

I have been in KI when the sirens went off when it was PKI. All it was sound very loud, making some people need new undies, and stating there was sever weather in the area, stay away from tall objects and seek shelter if its was available. I have been to the top of power tower looking south to see storms at night in the very far distance which was a beautiful site. The one time we had sever weather while at the point was when we were at light house point and nasty line came thru about 2am, it knocked power out to most of LHP and CV. Later that morning we found out by watching the news that there were Tornado and Thunderstorm warnings issued, but we didn't hear a peep from CP about it.

Spell it with me. S-E-V-E-R-E.

Yes - I have to agree... What happened to the basics of ABC's in today's schools? I'm really tired of taking the time to type my posts correctly then being subject to atrocious grammar. Of course there will always be a ZZZOOMMG!!!111!!!11!! idiot out there, but I had to rant! :-)

I was at Holiday World on Saturday. Right around closing at 8:30, an insane thunderstorm hit, complete with a nice little 5 minute spurt of hail as we were walking out of the park. Rode Voyage in a torrential downpour with minimal light and lightning flashing all over the sky. Very cool experience, yet painful.

I was in the waterpark at KI one afternoon when a tornado warning was issued. They cleared the park, of course, but the crush of people trying to retrieve their things out of that dead-end locker area was the stuff nightmares are made of. The storm was bad enough, but to be smashed together in a crowd of yelling, near-panicking people all with wet hair in wet swimsuits? Ick.

There certainly are some hellacious storms on Lake Erie, and I just imagine that if a really, really bad one came to CP we'd all be there like sitting ducks! I'm not sure where the safest place to go would be, or if on short notice you could actually get there. There certainly are no basements (just like the Alamo!) and really, no low-lying areas to speak of.

The good news is, amusement parks always have an eye on weather radar, and can usually detect a cell from miles away and take whatever precautionary steps are needed. But I wonder how easy it would be to evacuate a park full of people, if necessary, down those two skinny roads outta there!

I think there are one or two tornado sirens on the mainland, they may or may not be heard at CP.

I think those funnel clouds in the video were water spouts, not really tornados (Ben correct me if I'm wrong). But I remember being at Venetian Marina at the foot of the causeway that day and a few of us were watching the water spouts. No one was alarmed because we knew (or thought we knew) what they were, but I could see how park guests not used to Lake Erie weather would think they were tornados.

^You can just barley hear the sirens from the point. And that is when the rides are not running. The park does watch weather (obviously) and does have plans in place for situations that would warrant park evacuation or herding guests into shelters.

I am pretty sure the tornadoes spawned that day were actually related to Severe Thunderstorms/mesocyclone and were not the typical 'waterspouts' you typically see in the fall. I believe that was the day that the Davis-Besse Nuclear Generation Facility took a direct hit from an F2 tornado.

I am guessing chain wide that there are emergency procedures for every type of disaster. I know WOF staff does a good job of moving guests to shelter areas when the tornado sirens sound, but would probably have some confusion in an earthquake. The KBF staff could probably handle an earthquake a lot better, but would be clueless in the event of a tornado. An earthquake is possible in the midwest, but WOF staff would be as much in shock if it occurred, but I am guessing a procedure exists in the main office. If staff followed it, that would be the unknown.

I was at CP about 7 years ago when a power failure occurred about 2 hours before park closing. All the rides were locked down when the storm hit. The park was pitch black from Johnny Rockets to Soak City. It was 'surreal' being in the park in total darkness.

Vince982 said:
Spell it with me. S-E-V-E-R-E.

hahaha! funny stuff. maybe everyone wants to sever their ties with the (severe) weather!

I've seen some pretty amazing storms out at CP. Last spring there was one storm where we had to take shelter for about an hour. In Challenge Park employees and guests retreated to the bathrooms next to the golf course, with employees moving over to the former arcade after getting the guests into the bathrooms. There were some really stupid people who had to be removed from the golf course by a supervisor because they refused to stop playing despite a downpour and repeated requests to leave and take shelter.