Bomb Threat at BGW
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According to WVEC Ch13's website they have reported that "James City County Assistant Fire Chief Bob Ryalls told 13News Now someone found a note around 3:30 p.m. indicating that there was a bomb either in the England section of the theme park or in the England parking lot."
The response protocol for most bomb threats is driven by two things which are a) was a specific site where the bomb is located given and 2) was a specific time that it is going to go off given. If so then then the threat is considered very credible. If not it's still taken very seriously but not to the extent if both pieces of info are given. If the news report is correct then the police and other responders have a set area to worry about and as such the park can tailor their response as such. This was the case here so the park didn't have to worry about the rest of the park and all the guests. If none of the above info was given the response would have been to evacuate the whole park. I think they responded correctly in this instance.
The response protocol for most bomb threats is driven by two things which are a) was a specific site where the bomb is located given and 2) was a specific time that it is going to go off given. If so then then the threat is considered very credible. If not it's still taken very seriously but not to the extent if both pieces of info are given. If the news report is correct then the police and other responders have a set area to worry about and as such the park can tailor their response as such. This was the case here so the park didn't have to worry about the rest of the park and all the guests. If none of the above info was given the response would have been to evacuate the whole park. I think they responded correctly in this instance.
I'm aware of things the local news clearly isn't. According to everything I've been told (which is a lot), the threat did not specify a location. This is what I'd consider very solid info from multiple trusted sources.
Zachary said:
Restrict guest access to the area where the note was found and the surrounding areas while allowing guests to depart though alternate gates?
You're suggesting (without knowledge of what the note said) an evacuation of the park? Without knowing what the note said, one could just as easily assume that a hypothetical bomb would be in the parking lot instead of in-park.
Listen, this forum isn't obviously not where I belong, so I'll take my leave. From lurking in the past, I've not found one instance where I've agreed with anything you've said; I'm not interested in continuing with your type of "BGWFan"-dom.
Apparently everyone here is apart of a bomb disposal and terrorist response team? Is anyone in here a licensed doctor while I'm at it?
Well we should all be glad that James City County had it under control. Because they certainly have loads of experience with this kind of thing.
I am willing to bet if anyone had bothered to ask anyone at anyone of the Many large and impressive military installations in and around the greater Tidewater region they may have had a different reaction.
I am willing to bet if anyone had bothered to ask anyone at anyone of the Many large and impressive military installations in and around the greater Tidewater region they may have had a different reaction.
^That's the point I was getting at. None of us know the exact details of the message that was left. There's really no way to know if the park did too much or too little about the threat.
Just from dealing with evacuating much smaller facilities when some kid throws the fire alarm; it's a cluster of chaos. Even with good planning you always have a few people who don't want to follow out in a calm manner. Then when they're let back in after the fire dept gives the all-clear they're upset and want a refund. I can see in a much much bigger area that it would take hours to get people out, and the chaos because let's face it, people aren't even capable of standing in the baggage check line without cutting in. Should we have been evacuated? Maybe. But I could see if the threat wasn't credible, not wanting to start a panic and causing real damage with full evacuation. I wasn't aware if the actual problem until we left, but I did realize it had to be something more than medical emergency. I was thinking more of a facility issue like minor fire or water main break. We too stayed a few hours after hearing the announcements.
b.mac said:
Actually, I am support to counter-terrorism and counter-IEDs.
I understand all of your concerns. But why are you guys mad at the park for not closing down the whole park? The park was not in charge of this situation, police departments and agencies were. If they found it a bit necessary to close down the whole park, they would've, but they didn't. If you want to complain to somebody, or place blame on someone, direct it towards the police departments and government agencies, not the park, they were just doing as they were told.
More SNAFU than FUBAR, as far as some guests were aware nothing out of the ordinary was going on.
Most guests did not know anything other than an emergency situation. If they had known the details of a bomb threat, more than likely they would hustle to leave. However since it was reported they could not leave initially, they probably figured what the heck why not spend my time being productive and ride some rides.
First post here (although long time reader/lurker), and I happened to be at the park today on vacation with my family, and I didn't know what happened until I got home. That said, as someone who's been in a couple of bomb threat situations back home over the past few years, I don't necessarily think the park acted irresponsibly. They locked down the areas they suspected as at risk, and aimed to keep a large crowd calm with announcements when it was in progress. I was in line for Verbolten when the original announcement happened, and I had heard someone else in the park talking about a fire (obviously no sign of it walking out as the park was closing), but the bomb threat makes sense now knowing what I know.
As far as evacuating the entire park over it, I guess it depends on the severity of the threat. If they evacuated the park at any sign or report of a bomb threat, that would give someone an easy way to screw with the Busch Gardens team and wreak havoc, not to mention the challenge of crowd control. Of course, I'm working without a complete set of information, but my take is the park/officials seemed to do what I personally would expect (other than admitting more people when they've still got areas closed off; that's probably where I'd draw the line myself).
As far as evacuating the entire park over it, I guess it depends on the severity of the threat. If they evacuated the park at any sign or report of a bomb threat, that would give someone an easy way to screw with the Busch Gardens team and wreak havoc, not to mention the challenge of crowd control. Of course, I'm working without a complete set of information, but my take is the park/officials seemed to do what I personally would expect (other than admitting more people when they've still got areas closed off; that's probably where I'd draw the line myself).
Party Rocker said:
Good point here; when I heard the announcement I turned to family and said that I thought this might be the first time I was trapped at Busch Gardens. It didn't occur to me there was another way in/out, although I'm sure there has to be. The announcement made it sound like the entrance/exit was temporarily closed, and after a couple of hours I wondered aloud if they forgot to announce the reopening, only to get that announcement a bit further out. It definitely wasn't clear, and perhaps they could've made another announcement or two to at least keep people posted.
Umm, most people did. I went to the Festhaus to watch TIO after I made the trek to the front of the park to see what was going on. Everyone around us knew. I mean, it was plastered all over Facebook, and the people who hadn't looked on there phones heard it from other people. Nobody was all that concerned, they trusted that the situation was under control, and that necessary precautions were being taken. Plus the employees knew, but they weren't scared, or acting up, and it was business as usual in the rest of the park. So really, no one had a reason to freak out even though they knew.
- Feb 17, 2014
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I consider the lack of panic a good thing, if everyone panicked, the idiot would have gotten what he wanted.
I spent the day at KD with my Gals and word quickly spread around about what was going on at BG. People in lines talking about threats they have experienced and a very serious demeanor coming from the ride ops and staff. It's amazing how quickly things spread these days. My 2 cent from reading these pages from today.....I dont think the threat was credible enough for the park to shut down. Writing a threat on the wall of a bathroom stall is more than likely just punk kids. The police know how to deal with certain levels of threat to the public. I'm fairly certain THEY were running the show and making the decisions as to how things went down. Glad I chose BG on Friday and KD today! I feel bad for the folks that were frightened by this, in a place that is always full of cheer. I'll say it again, Punk arse kids.
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