News Hurricane Milton Storming Towards Florida's Theme Parks

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I64 Trekker

Mar 17, 2020
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Figured I would post this here, since Milton is coming right on the heels of Helene.

BGT is closed Tue 10/8 - Thu 10/10
SWO is closed Wed 10/9 - Thu 10/10

Universal is staying open until 2 pm Wednesday, which will be great for anybody that wants to marathon VelociCoaster but sucks for all of the park employees who are expected to be at work the day before a hurricane.

As for me, I have a trip scheduled for Orlando late next week, with plans to visit BGT Friday and SWO Saturday. With the way things look at the moment, I may reschedule. SWO should be fine a week after the storm, but who knows what things are going to look like in the Tampa area.
 
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The way things are looking, and I hope I'm wrong, but these parks are being VERY optimistic thinking they will open again later this week or next. Power, fuel and basic life services are most certainly questionable for an unforeseen amount of time.

Additionally, one must ask who is going to try and access these areas for theme park thrills right after all this mess?

I'm quite nervous since the ground is nearly fully saturated from earlier storms.
 
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It's kind of ridiculous-- Publix and most of the stores around all closed today, but the parks are still planning on opening tomorrow.

As of now I have to report for work tomorrow morning at WDW, and I will probably have to be there for my whole shift. :(
 
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Yesterday the track said it would be cat 3 by landfall, but now it says cat 4. Hopefully this trend up doesn't continue....
 
It's especially horrible because, while the parks may close at 2pm, that doesn't mean staff get to leave at 2pm. Closing up restaurants and shops, clearing the park, clocking out, getting back to your car, etc all takes time—pushing people's commutes closer and closer to the tropical storm conditions arrival time.

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And the goal shouldn't be to have everyone somewhere safe just in time—it should be to have everyone have plenty of time to arrive somewhere safe and to allow them buffer time for final preparations (and even in fringe cases, packing and time to leave) before the arrival of dangerous conditions. Waiting till the last minute introduces unnecessary risk, doesn't give staff prep time, and clogs up roads unnecessarily as conditions begin to deteriorate.
 
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If Milton makes landfall south of Tampa Bay, somewhere between Sarasota and Venice, that will provide a huge sigh of relief for folks in the Tampa area who had been looking at a storm surge of 10-15 feet. Instead, they could be looking at a reverse storm surge sucking water out of Tampa Bay.
 
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I64 Trekker said:
If Milton makes landfall south of Tampa Bay, somewhere between Sarasota and Venice, that will provide a huge sigh of relief for folks in the Tampa area who had been looking at a storm surge of 10-15 feet. Instead, they could be looking at a reverse storm surge sucking water out of Tampa Bay.
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Gonna suck for the people of Fort Myers and Cape Coral, though.
 
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Looks like the eye is about to hit the Sarasota area. I'm watching the live beach cams of Englewood and Port Charlotte and those two are getting absolutely battered right now. The National Hurricane Center just updated and said that it will make landfall with wind speeds of 120 mph.


Update: at 8:30 the NHC has reported that Milton made Landfall in the Sarasota area near Siesta Key, FL as a Cat 3 storm with 120 mph winds.
 
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So, SWO reopens tomorrow, but no Spooktacular during the day or HOS at night. Tampa seems to need more time to reset/reopen because they got hit harder:

Hurricane Milton Update | United Parks & Resorts

SeaWorld Park & Entertainment Updates
unitedparks.com unitedparks.com

I live about a mile from SWO and the damage in the area is minimal overall, but I have a feeling the Halloween stuff either needs to be brought back out and rebuilt or just rebuilt because it was done in by the winds.
 
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I64 Trekker said:
BGT might also be delaying reopening to ensure employees that evacuated are able to get back to the area to be able to work.
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Other companies may worry about trivial things like that, but United Parks??? And lose our on $3 profit? No way!!
 
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