PA state rep questions park safety

Rep. Paul Costa(perhaps the Ed Markey on the state level) was on the ABC affiliate in Pittsburgh today asking for changes in park policy. Rep. Costa asking that all parks in the commonwealth tell their guests ahead of time which structures are safe in a storm and which are not. He thinks that K-wood should issue a map when you walk in with various locations to go in case of a storm. I honestly don't know how many structures at most parks would be able to sustain a 105 mph wind. If you would like to read his press release, there is a link at the bottom.

www.pahouse.net/pr/Costa/034062002.htm

I read about it in the Post Gazette. The roof that blew off at Kennywood was a storm shelter. There isn't too much that will stand up to 105 MPH winds. This area is not noted for that kind of weather. As fast as that storm blew in, I don't think that there was time to make an announcement.

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The worst day at Cedar Point is better than the best day at work.

It's not a bad idea at all. Recently an F5 tornado touched down in LaPlata MD, not far from SFA. When I was at SFOT last month, they had evacuation notices posted at several of the rides, because of Texas being in tornado alley.
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If coasters are your life, than maybe you need to re-examine your life.

The accident at Kennywood was a freak accident. He's grabbing headlines in light of a tragic death. That's one step lower than ambulance chasing.

All accounts at the park indicate the wind came out of nowhere and was unexpected. That said, if you are in Old Kennywood, where are you going to go other than Exterminator and Whip?

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com, Sillynonsense.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"

It was a freak occurance. My aunt lives about 3 or 4 miles from Kennywood, and her neighborhood was hit by the same storm. She said that it pretty much came out of nowhere, and hit without notice. It was pretty interesting to track the storm's path down her street: The side my aunt lives on was untouched, while her neighbors on the other side had major tree damage in their backyards.

That being said, I don't think that parks offering some sort of info to guests on what to do in an emergincy is a bad idea. The only problem is that you can't offer guests a plan for a freak occurance that there is no way of planning for. Posting signs sounds like a good idea, but those maps would probably end up in the trash anyway.

As Jeff said, this guy is just being an opportunist and trying to grab some attention.

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Jeff said:That said, if you are in Old Kennywood, where are you going to go other than Exterminator and Whip?

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com, Sillynonsense.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"

Correct. The only places in Old Kennywood relatively close to the Whip and Exterminator to hide besides those places are the food place near the Pittfall, the Sport Shop under the Phantom, and the Souvenir shop near the small fry. But those are pretty far from the Whip and Exterminator.

So naturally people will go to the Exterminator and Whip.

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Yelling "run for cover" over a PA system will do more harm than good.

If more people would've headed for shelter under the Whip, who would've been helped?

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"When I was growing up, we were taught something called manners. You'd understand that if you weren't such an idiot." - Jack Handey

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CoasterBoy said:

He thinks that K-wood should issue a map when you walk in with various locations to go in case of a storm.

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Where do you stop with this? If you're going to tell people where to go in the event of a storm, why not cover any incident that might happen: a fire, robbery, terrorist attack, what to do if stranded on a ride when it malfunctions? I could go on. The park needs to continue to train employees to direct guests where to go in an emergency. From what I heard about the Kennywood storm, those guests didn't have a lot of time to seek shelter. Maps wouldn't have done them much good. And if someone is telling people to seek shelter over a PA, I'm sure as hell not going to stop and say, "Hold on. Let me check my map to see where to go", while the storm blows me away.

This guy is just a political boob. He says "anything can happen at any time". That means we'll have to prepare for everything?!? How do you do that?

Sounds like a politician trying to sound concerned to me.

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Without the chaindog, you'd never get up the lifthill...

This is a good example of everything thats wrong with our country - even elected officals take a death and a freak incident of nature and decide SOMEONE has to be responsible because obviously every little incident is a reason for someone to sue. Where is this guy from? Can I vote him out of office??

He represents the following communities: Braddock, Braddock Hills, Chalfant, Churchill, East McKeesport, Edgewood, Forest Hills, North Braddock, Rankin, Swissvale, Turtle Creek and Wilmerding along with some of the City of Pittsburgh. For those of you not familiar with the city, these sections are very close to the park. I'm sure he thought he could feed off the fear that his constituients(i always hear that word by politicians but I can't spell it). Some of his voters were affected by the storm for sure.