SFGAm, 07/06: Mother nature lashes out.

Ooooh, boy!!!

Interesting day at the park. We arrived around 2:30 and sure enough the heavens started to open up. We saw absolutely no coasters running and I knew earlier that we had a tornado watch for the Chicago area all afternoon.. But...... we went anyway. :)

After getting through the gates , we walked around hoping the skies would clear up. We did some arcade games and prize games. Right at about 3:30 , the rain started to come down in sheets while we ran over to the Eagle tent. Got my daughter some cheese fries, and myself a beer, and then an announcement came on the loudspeaker that a tornado warning was no in affect and to take shelter. The emergency sirens started to blare.

My daughter was getting a little scared but I assured her we were safe (even though I had no clue if we were or not). The rain was still coming down hard, thunder and lightning were rampant, and the sirens were still blaring.

Finally the sirens stopped, the rain let up, and the crowds started walking around. We decided to give it a go, so we started walking through Yukon Territory, Yankee Harbor, and into Orlean's Place. Since everything was still shut down, we took in the show at Theatre Royale. After the show ended , an announcement came on that another tornado warning was on again, and the sirens were blaring with more heavy rain. We stayed under the shelter of the theatre, and when all was clear (again), we started walking toward SWT.

As we got near Viper and RB, the skies were actually clearing up with the sun popping out. The temperature started out muggy, dropped to the 60's, and then jumped back up again. At this point all the coasters started to test.

By 5:00, the rides started to open and we got a quick ride on Giant Drop. After that, we proceeded to RB which was running 2 trains. The wait was about 15 minutes. Another kick booty back row ride on Da Bull.

Made our way around the park again in hopes of a ride on Batman but all they were doing was testing the trains on and off. My daughter decided to ride Whirligig. During her first ride, the black clouds started rolling in again and a bolt of lightning flashed out near Raging Bull. When her ride was done, she wanted to ride again. Just as the rideop was ready to start it up again, a bolt of lightning struck right above us.

I am talking a massive flash, an instant loud crackle, and then the earth shook. O.K. THATS ENOUGH OF THIS. I yelled at my daughter to get off immediately. She ran over to me and the heavens opened up yet again.

We waited for the rain to let up, and headed out of the park around 7:00.

Mother nature lashed out at us today and wouldnt let up. She teased us a few times but kept on coming with full force.

Very interesting day. Thanks for reading.

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Arena football has arrived in the Windy City. Go "Chicago Rush"

The storms have been really bad the past few days. How were the crowds w/the storms even though it was a Sunday?

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"Train Secure"
*** This post was edited by SFGAMan 7/6/2003 11:01:33 PM ***

We didn't get any storms in Glenview. It was really wierd, because it kept getting real dark but there were no storms.

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Two Points Amusement Park
http://games.coasterbuzz.com/filedetail.aspx?GameFileID=3433

Crowds werent to bad. After the first round of storms, the park emptied out pretty good.

The weather was wierd coasterphil. I live in Elgin, and when I got here, I found out that we hardly got any rain at all. Seems that Lake County got it the worst.

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Arena football has arrived in the Windy City. Go "Chicago Rush"

I live in Gurnee! AHHHHHHH! There has not been daylight for three days! There have been four tornados! (Three in Libertyville and one in Antioch) I'm not kidding. We didn't have power all day on the fifth! and now I am typing to a flash and boom noise outside! I Want Sunlight!

And did I mention: It's green out there!
*** This post was edited by Binks Drake 7/7/2003 10:11:39 AM ***
*** This post was edited by Binks Drake 7/7/2003 10:12:25 AM ***

Was anything in hometown square open the rest of the day? We got there at 7:00 p.m and were told we had to go to the east side of the Columbia. No one was being let throught by the Pictorum.

Security and park staff were blocking off the path. For the rest of the day everything in that section was down. Sky Treck Tower, SSA, the go-carts, Triple Play, Hometown Fun Machine, The Wizzer and the Train. Maybe the lightining strike was closer than you think.

Other than that, the rides re-opened at 7:45 with little to no wait for any coaster and practically no one in the park. We got 12 rides in and we were not even pushing it. They were not letting re-rides occur except for one spin on the viper.

I have learned though never to wear my coasterbuzz sweatshirt to the park. Every ride op noticed it and had to comment. Which was not a bad thing. Except or one guy named Mark who was a supervisor of some sorts. He was trying to sell me on how Acers were a better group and how if he could chose, he would invite the Acers to a party instead of buzzers. My guess is he has no concerns about the food bill.

...and Scott comes away with his life! Man, I miss those killer midwest/eastern storms. You just don't get the carnage here in Seattle.

Glad you had a fun, albeit rainy, day. Glad the daughter survived Whirligig. ;)
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Join MY coaster club! - It's absolutely FREE!

That brought back memories of waiting in line for Rolling Thunder back in the day during a severe storm. :)

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Never Has Gravity Been So Uplifting.

No nasai, you dont have storms to worry about, just earthquakes and the occasional volcano blowing up in your backyard... Quite enough carnage thank you very much...

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Bob Hansen
Who still remembers sweeping ash off of my uncles car when St. Helens went up in 1980...

It kinda reminds me of my last SFA trip,of course we didn't get any tornadoes that day (thank god) but we had our share of lightning & heavy downpours that's for sure.

I wouldn't be a bit suprised if lightning hit the very ride you guys said you were at,or at least hit another structure closeby,which might explain why that entire section was later closed off to the GP.

Wait wait back up! Lighting struck Hometown Sqaure?