Ike Closes Holiday World

Holiday World closed at noon today due to high winds. My family in Jasper called me and said trees and power lines are down. A friend also called (she was driving from Santa Claus to Evansville) and said that it was really bad street signs were twisted and mangled and trash cans were blowing everywhere.

We're getting similar winds here in Cincy - sustained around 30mph, gusts up to 50-60. I wouldn't be surprised if Kings Island shut down most of their operations as well (they're showing a private event on their calendar today). Strongest winds I've seen here all year, but sunny and very hot.

Up here in Terre Haute, we are getting very gusty winds. It is cloudy and drizzly.

Reports from home are saying minimal to moderate damage to buildings. Mom said they lost shingles and some siding and lots of downed tree limbs.

How is it that people in the Midwest who have arguably the most diverse weather in the country also over-react the most to every change in it?

We are cautious?

Well, it's nice and sunny here in Orlando! Weird how this one totally skipped most of Florida.

Jeff, that's a ridiculous statement. That's like me saying, "Why is it that all website administrators over-generalize about everything?"

Unless you were joking. In which case, ha ha.

Jeff said:
How is it that people in the Midwest who have arguably the most diverse weather in the country also over-react the most to every change in it?

I've lived through hurricanes, this is very similar to what I've experienced (though that had more rain, this is just VERY bad wind.)

XFest here at Dayton was canceled, half of UD's ghetto is without power, trees are down and so are power lines.

We are under a high wind warning here in Detroit, but so far all I've seen is a steady rain (Ike is right over us). I suspect any wind will come on the back side.

On the other hand, a tornado touched down a mile north of me last evening and I didn't even know about it until this afternoon.

I've got the same wind here. So what? It's nothing compared to what I saw a couple of weeks ago in Florida when Fay hit, and that wasn't even a hurricane.

I don't run Holiday World, and they can do whatever they want at their discretion, but for people not running a park in the Midwest to be overreacting when there are people in Texas with real problems, that annoys me.

Naw. You guys & gals in the heartland ain't got zilch on New England in the crazy weather dept.

I don't run Holiday World, and they can do whatever they want at their discretion, but for people not running a park in the Midwest to be overreacting when there are people in Texas with real problems, that annoys me.

Yes because keeping the park open with all the rides closed because it is unsafe to run them and tree limbs falling and blowing around makes sense.

Dude... get over it. I'm not second guessing what the parks do. I wouldn't run rides in this wind either. My angst is directed toward John Q. Ohioan, as I thought I made clear in my last post.

Well, I heard Louisville Ky had winds up to 75-80 MPH today, and that would certainly be enough to warrant a change in plans whether you were operating an amusement park or not.

I'm in Ohio, where we do have diverse weather, and yes, with that comes those people who tend to treat every change in the weather as an emergency. Our winds were only in the 50-60 mph range, and while we sat in our house watching our furniture and flower pots blow away we tried but couldn't imagine what a storm with sustained winds double that amount would be like. So, gee, I feel like a real idiot. I hope that tomorrow when I'm done sawing up tree limbs, trying to repair damaged landscaping, gathering our siding from the neighboring yards, waiting for our telephone drop to be reattached, and helping my neighbor get his car out from under that Bradford pear, I realize that I'm only over-reacting.

If you follow us at www.twitter.com/holidayworld you saw how the winds got progressively more powerful, causing us to never open the coasters and then, ride by ride, slide by slide, close the park. When it went from falling pine cones to flying trashcans, it was time to call it a day. Good thing, too; shortly after, the electricity went out. Lots of electrical lines and trees down on vitually every main road, making it hard to drive in this area.

Thankfully, it's calmed down for the most part. Lots of clean up to do. And my husband has still not milked the cows from this morning, due to the power being out. Our nine-year-old quipped, "Well, Dad ... I guess they'll just have to milk in their pants."

Be safe! Paula

Businesses, schools (and universities), etc. are just better off closing when the weather has the potential to do this. It's not worth having soccer moms driving to pick up junior when the school closes mid-day because Ike turned 15* off-course over the period of 4-5 hours and now you've got citizens out on the roads with emergency vehicles, downed power lines, no stoplights and no visibility. Just more sensible to be cautious, preventing the worst-case scenarios from becoming reality. As always, YMMV.

The highest sustained winds according to this site were in the 30's. Other weather stations recording gusting speed near Louisville don't even place it that high.

Why is it that just because you can come up with one example it doesn't mean the vast majority of people are overreacting before a weather event even starts? Here's the weather station where I live, and there isn't any damage to speak of here, despite 50+ mph gusts. There are some power outages and down trees around the area, but that's typical with any solid thunderstorm. The Kentucky media seems to report just about the same.

And my point stands... this is like any other strong line of storms we get in this part of the country, and compared to what's going on down around the gulf, its material effect on most people is little more than inconvenience. If you had more serious damage, I'm sorry to hear that. Don't take it personally or like I'm trying to invalidate your experience, because it's still atypical to what most other people had to deal with.

I don't care what the weather stations say, Jeff. This windstorm was the worst one Southern Indiana has seen in a very long time. Perhaps people in your area are overreacting, but the weather in Southern Indiana (particularly in Dubois/Spencer County) was a lot worse than what the weather stations are reporting. It was like an F1-F2 tornado hit the whole area.

P.S. I live in Terre Haute, which is only 120 miles away and barely got anything.

An F1 has winds in excess of 73mph. An F2 113mph. That's not what hit Southern Indiana.

Look, I'm not saying that there isn't damage, but again, it's typical summer weather, and no one is having to evacuate 100 miles away because their entire city is under several feet of water. The news on Louisville TV stations is talking about power outages, down trees, the delay of a golf tournament and people being hurt by a collapsing tent. I suspect most of the 1.2 million people in the metro are gonna be just fine.

Winds in excess of 73 mph did hit Jasper, not 113, but 73 definitely did. I have lived through a tornado that has come through my backyard and this was worse than that. Yes most will be fine, but your poo-pooing this storm because it does not affect people where it is hitting now as much as it has affected others where it hit yesterday just does not make sense.