Carowinds gives free admission to hurricane evacuees

Anyone with a Florida drivers license can get in free to Paramount's Carowinds through Labor Day Monday. On Saturday 9-4, they had over 500 people from Florida take advantage of the offer.

I heard over 2 million people were evacuated from Florida and many are heading towards the Carolinas. *** Edited 9/5/2004 2:30:58 PM UTC by swampfoxer***

While that seems like a nice gesture and all, how many people really went that far north?

I thought the same thing until I heard that the welcome center on I-77 in NC has had thousands of Florida evacuees stopping in. The NC welcome center is just a mile or so from Carowinds. The Red Cross has even set up a shelter at a nearby high school just a couple miles from the park and they have had many, many people take advantage of it. I guess people are getting as far the heck away as they can. Charlotte is suppose to get the heavy rains from the storm on Tues. & Wed. though.

Many hotels are booked with evacuees. Its unusual for the hotels around here because Labor Day weekend usually finds more people leaving the area than coming.

I know in my area here the local news said that people were coming to Chattanooga because all the hotels from Atlanta north were full of people leaving Florida.

I wouldn't doubt it that they've gone to the Carolinas as well. I know if I were from Florida I'd want to be as far away as I could be till the storm blew over.

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Jeff said:
While that seems like a nice gesture and all, how many people really went that far north?

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Actually Charlotte is only about a 5-6 hour drive from Jacksonville, FL. Not far at all when your trying to out run a hurricane that's as big as your state

Yep, the weather channel said that Georgia and the Carolina states were overflowing with evacuees from the storm. I guess when Georgia filled up, they went even further north.

Good move on their part, some of these parents and children could probably use a day to forget about the storm, they may have sever damage when they get home.

I think its a great idea. High five for Paramount!

I was at Carowinds on Saturday and met quite a few families from Florida that had evacuated. I thought this was a great gesture by the park. I just had to show my PKD Season Pass to get in free, without the extra hurricane.

That is a very nice gesture. Kudos to Carowinds!

does PCar have a certain Dartron spin ride? ;)

That, my friends, is why Paramount's guest service rocks. Excellent gesture.

That is awesome of the park!

Believe it or not we are getting quite a few Floridians as well, mostly senior citizens who are originally from WV and who are staying with their children.

I can't believe yet another hurricane is on it's way to Florida. :-(

-Tina

*** Edited 9/8/2004 10:37:38 AM UTC by coasterqueenTRN***