Tornado Warnings

Putting in a Park wide P.A system would be wise. Did the people that got stuck on the Power tower during the Waterspout get any applogy besides the speile Robin I. released to the tv station? Wouldnt that open you up to lawsuits saying we know we have a problem with our emergency proceedures?

^I'm sure that got something lame for their troubles.

You know, ever since I first saw that news video years ago, something about those people's story has seemed fishy to me. I suspect they were probably too freaked out to just simply push up on their unlocked harnesses, therefore assuming they were locked in, but that's just my guess.

Two years ago during a tornado warning, employees and guests in Challenge Park were all escorted by supervisors into the Soak City restrooms to wait out the storm. My favorite was the guests who refused to stop playing challenge golf until a supervisor went out and took their putters away.

crazy horse said:
Unfortunatly, it will probaly take a lawsuit from someone that gets hurt for them to do anything about it.

Actually, I think it is just the opposite. If they organize guests and direct them in any way, CP is taking responsibility for guest's safety during the storm, opening up a lawsuit if someone gets hurt. The way it is now, if someone gets hurt it is just an "act of god".

Anyway, what works for parks that just have an amusement area won't work for CP. What about hotel guests, campers and boaters? I know I wouldn't hear any P.A. announcement in the park if I'm in a camper or sitting on my boat at the marina. CP is more like a small city and should be treated as such.

^^ electrical room + lightning storm outside = whole team of cooked ride ops!! :)

At CP, I have never been caught in a huge storm, except hard rain and midway flooding and people splashing around. Even if there was a tornado coming, we would have never known because they dont warn the park. When i am down in the midway, and a storm hits, all we see is clouds and then lightning/thunder comes and so on. I wouldn't see a tornado coming even of i tried, because they dont warn ya.

At KI, we were caught in a bad storm and ran inside a gift shop with glass and windows all around. i remember playing under the overflowing gutter and showering untill the rain stopped. :)

Ralph Wiggum said:
You know, ever since I first saw that news video years ago, something about those people's story has seemed fishy to me. I suspect they were probably too freaked out to just simply push up on their unlocked harnesses, therefore assuming they were locked in, but that's just my guess.

I thought the same thing. It's the ride op in the booth who releases the harnesses so if the ride op on the ground ran away it shouldn't matter. Plus the fact they said a passer-by helped them by lifting their restraint means they weren't locked.

What does CP even use nowadays for situational awareness when it comes to storms/severe weather? They used to use the crappy NOAA/NWS page radar. Have they actually bought a radar product/program since 2004? Do they have any lightning data services? A simple GRLevel3 + Allisonhouse lightning data would help situational awareness a great deal for the park.

And some sort of public announcement or warning system would be nice. They should have a plan

Step one: Spot big red blob on radar. Step two: Call all the little phones at each ride. Step three: Top Thrill Dragster is down due to weather conditions announcement. Step four: Head for the hills. :)

I was in frontier land during a freak storm, sometime in the mid 90's. When water spouts were spotted over lake Erie seurity ushered everyone in groups to certain areas of the park. My area happened to be under the old sky lift station next to snake river falls.

I have no idea what CP's procedure is for inclement weather, but I am sure they have one. And yes a general PA system would have been nice warning us what was happening.

bholcomb said:
Video is related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI27jlwNk2E

Theoretically they should have guests take cover, but I don't know really what they do. Lightning and heat is a much bigger danger than tornadoes ever will be.

I was actually there on that day. I was waiting in line for Mantis when my family saw a funnel cloud coming for us. I remember being led to the bathrooms near the train station (by some sort of manager with a megaphone) while the first twister went directly over us. After that we were moved to an engineering/maintenance room under the Iron Dragon station.

The policy is this....

Should a severe storm approach with high winds, we will issue a siginal 4, condition 3, whitch means SEEK SHELTER.

Guests is close proximity should be advised of the situation and invited to seek shelter along with the employees.

The crews should seek shelter in the folling assigned locations so we know where to find them.Once the storm subsides, employees should return on there own to their locations. If there is no phone service, or employees fear for there saftey and have not recived a call, they may use this plan prior to recieving permission from management.

In an effort not to seperate groups, familys may stay together in a bath house or restroom, regardless of gender during a severe storm. Employees should encourage this.

PARK OPERATIONS EMPLOYEE SHELTER LOCATIONS.

Hotel pools..........................pump shed

Marina pool.........................Marina restroom

Beach..................................Beach rental

Challenge park.....................bath house/filter building 1,2,3

Rip cord..............................Ripcord building

Soak city.............................bath house/filter building 1,2,3

soak city west......................filter building #4

soak city wave.....................filter building #6

Front gate cash....................season pass office

group sales booth.................season pass office

front gate ticket takers...........Mall office

Guest services.......................Behind counter

Marina gate...........................gate office

resort gate............................gate office

beach gate...........................gate office

Traffic and tolls....................Restroom or tollbooth

Town hall.............................Stay in town hall away from windows

Sweeps................................Nearest restroom or block building

Restrooms............................nearest restroom

Group utility..........................Nearest shelter or building

Park operations.....................Office without windows

Park servisec offices..............Office without windows

Pet farm................................Barn

Pet check.............................Rest room

RIDES

Antique cars......................Public restroom

Blue streak........................pirate storage

Planet snoopy....................Arcade

Cadillac cars.....................Arcade

Camp snoopy...................Gemini arcade

Carrousel.........................Demon drop restroom

Calypso............................Pirate ride storage

Cedar downs....................Arcade

Cp railroad main................Wildcat restroom

cp railroad frontier.............Under mean streak

cp railroad frontier gate house........gemini restroom

cp mean streak gate...........under mean streak

cp railroad main gate..........wildcat restroom

Chaos..................................??

Corkscrew..........................under corkscrew

Disaster transport.................under ride

Demon drop........................Demon drop restroom

Dodgem..............................Matterhorn restroom

Gemini.................................under ride station

Gemini childrens area...........Gemini arcade

Giant wheel.........................wicked twister electrical room

Iron dragon.........................Under station

Kiddy kingdom...................Arcade

Matterhorn..........................Matterhorn restroom

Mantis.................................Under station

Magnum..............................Under station

Mean streak........................Under station

Millennium force..................Under station

Mine ride............................Under station

Monster.............................Gemini arcade

Ocean motion....................Joe cool

Paddlewheel......................Gemini arcade

Power tower.....................First room of compressor building

Raptor...............................Under station

Scrambler...........................Matterhorn restrooms

Sky ride east........................Gift shop

Sky ride west.......................Refreshment stand

Snake river..........................pump room

Space spiral.........................Space spiral restroom

Himalaya..............................Under corkscrew

Thunder canyon....................Electrical room

Troika..................................??

Turnpike cars.......................Pirate ride storage

Wave swinger......................Thunder canyon electrical room

Wicked twister....................Electrical room

Wildcat................................Wildcat restroom

Witches wheel......................Gemini arcade.

This is from an older park operations book. The troika and choas were moved, so I do not know the new shelter area for those rides.

New areas may be:

Troika- go to DT or WT rooms

Chaos- go to main arcade

In a bad storm, if you are by shoot the rapids, go to the exit gift shop building! Its fun to play around with toy rifles and hang out till the storm lets up. :)

Some of those places don't hit me as the safest place to be during a tornado. I definatly wouldn't want to be under Mean Streak or in the Petting Farm.

I'd just want to be somewhere with a view and a HD camera :)

I agree.

I don't see how a glass toll booth would be the best place to be durring a bad storm.

I would rather ride Top Thrill Dragster during a tornado than be a sitting duck in a glass hut in the middle of a parking lot or a wooden shack on the beach. :)

I wouldn't. The odds of getting struck by lightning, especially when you're 420 feet in the air are pretty high compared to getting hit by a tornado :)

It adds to the thrill ;)

^ I agree!