And often pounding rain, with resulting widespread flooding...

Just got back from KI. When a tornado warning was announced we were directed to HVAC shelter. The warning was lifted about 9:30a and we were allowed to take shortcut to parking lot to get to our cars. How coincidental this thread was started yesterday.

We had a tornado warning there years ago when I worked there. The guests went into the arcade on Coney Mall. Nothing came of it of course, but there are designated locations.

Everyone, be SAFE!!! Closing out, storm here....

Kings Island is not a place, i 'd want to be right now, for sure, during storms,,,,

surely they would not send fans to there car,,,

also hope all the coasters are good and more importantly the workers:

wow i know how it is evacuating the park in a thunderstorm! i remember back on the 4th of july of 2003, my family spent a day at the park. Later that night, about 30 minutes before the fireworks the skies started looking awful and the wind started to pick up, a few minutes later, it was announced that a severe storm warning had been issued. Suddenly,it began with lightning, rain, hail, wind, and all. It was complete madness as everyone was running and screeming for the gates. It became so bad that they opened up the bypass around the gates. Although i was only 11 at the time, i still remember how painfull it was running through the parking lot with hail hitting my face. Then we were stuck in the parking lot traffic for 2 1/2 hours! I wonder if anyone else was there that night.

I just left Holiday World and we had some bad weather there including some small hail there. My group decided not to wait out the storm for the ERT tonight, so we headed back to the hotel. Sky is clear now so hopefully those that stayed are riding coasters by now.

Ya it definetly got bad tonight. I just want to thank any of you who were guests for you cooperation and thanks big time to all the associates for tier hard work and keeping up. Good job to all.

Tonight was crazy! The rain started and everyone started flooding to the parks exit. The rain was getting harder and harder. Once the tornado warning came over the radio all associates had to go to our tornado locations. Wow crazy night.

We were getting some pretty awesome thunder and lightning earlier here in Ashland. Didn't really rain too hard though. It was just a little windy. I hope everyone that was at the park was alright! I would be freaked out for sure!

I think a roller coaster would with stand most tornados since they are mostly open aired structures.

You might think that, but you wouldn't necessarily be right. Tornadoes are strange beasts, and can totally demolish everything in their path, while leaving other things totally untouched....

This is true-I have seen pics of playing cards piercing through wood and things like that. It was bad tonight-I am soaked and just now getting warm from being in it.

We were getting some pretty awesome thunder and lightning earlier here in Ashland. Didn't really rain too hard though. It was just a little windy. I hope everyone that was at the park was alright! I would be freaked out for sure!

and of course right after I post this we get a downpour. Awesome.

We were at the park this evening and had to take shelter in Action Theater at the 3D Sponge Bob attraction. Interesting basement the place has. Kudos to the area supervisor who handled everything well. It was a very interesting evening.

We were at the park this evening and had to take shelter in Action Theater at the 3D Sponge Bob attraction. Interesting basement the place has. Kudos to the area supervisor who handled everything well. It was a very interesting evening.

I didn't even know that place had a basement...

If you hear anyone say that a tornado cant hit inside of a city with big buildings, then they are wrong. Atlanta, Ga got hit inside of the city a few years ago. It did do damage. I know that a tornado hit 2 times 10 to 20 miles away from Kings Island in Xenia. It did about the same amount of damage a few years ago as it did back in the 70's. I know that the tornado was big. We had a F-4 hit Columbus, Ohio in the late 80's close to where i am at now. It took out the big screen at the drive in movies and did damage everywhere elso close to the tornado. If you have a F-5 or a F-6(yes it goes that high), then its time to pray and run like a mad person running towards Diamondback. I've seen many tornados but never a F-5 or a F-6. I know that The Weather Channel has the Vortex2 field experiment going on. They are taking it from state to state looking for tornados.

There is no 6 on the Fujita scale or the Enhanced Fujita scale, which is now used in the US.

We were at the park this evening and had to take shelter in Action Theater at the 3D Sponge Bob attraction. Interesting basement the place has. Kudos to the area supervisor who handled everything well. It was a very interesting evening.

I didn't even know that place had a basement...

I know this is off topic, but the U. of Tenn. football arena has a basement. They store bones and dead bodies down in it. They do research on them. The bodies are given to them for research by familys or by the person who died. I seen this on a Modern Marvels episode.

There is no 6 on the Fujita scale or the Enhanced Fujita scale, which is now used in the US.

Well, i cant lie about what a weatherman had said.

I stand corrected. I've never heard of F6 before and thought I remembered hearing on The Weather Channel that no such category existed.

However,

Although the Fujita scale itself ranges up to F12, the strongest possible tornadoes are in the F5 range (originally estimated to be between 261 to 318 mph).

From http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/satellite/sate...nal/fujita.html

A F-6 is very very rare. I did hear that on The Weather Channel.

My cousin was at the park today, and I got a text from him earlier tonight that he was crammed in Larossa's freezer with tons of other people because there was a tornado warning. Anybody else experience this?

My cousin was at the park today, and I got a text from him earlier tonight that he was crammed in Larossa's freezer with tons of other people because there was a tornado warning. Anybody else experience this?

Well thats one way of cooling off at the park on a hot day. Lol. I hope all is ok.

It seems a bit odd to me that they would have a tornado shelter in a walk-in freezer.

It seems a bit odd to me that they would have a tornado shelter in a walk-in freezer.

I hear you on that one. That would suck seeing what they really put on the pizza's. Lol. Joking.

I kind of wish I went to the park tonight. It would have been interesting to see. I love storms and get excited when I see them developing. Tornadoes are such a awmesome force in nature. Its a shame when they take lives and destroy homes. Here in Cincinnati just had some lighting and some rain.

Just dont do like that guy did a few years ago. Go out to your car in a open lot during a storm and touch your car and get zapped when your car gets hit by lighting. He tryed to sue Kings Island over it. Not sure if he won.

We were at the park this evening and had to take shelter in Action Theater at the 3D Sponge Bob attraction. Interesting basement the place has. Kudos to the area supervisor who handled everything well. It was a very interesting evening.

I didn't even know that place had a basement...

I don't know if it still is, but that used/is the Tech Services shop area. Did they have you in the storage area (big garage door on the one wall) or the actual shop?

And if you looked closely in there, many interesting tidbits are located throughout that shop...

Stupid question but did anyone happen to take pics of the storm today at the park?

I was at Dollywood yesterday and ironically it started to rain when I was waiting in line but luckily no lightning. I worked maintenance back in 2003, we helped with storm damage clean up and we all noticed that the tall grass was all sworld around, mud caked on sides of RVs and there was a tree all mangled up with a tent untouched right next to it. I had to climb Xtreme Skyflyer later on and you could see a s curved path thru the campground and headed toward Kings High School. I don't think it was straight gail winds because not only did the "tornado" knock down the old sign it also ripped off two Beast parking signs and rolled a whole tram into the woods before hitting the camp ground.

The main source of the straight line winds was the damage to the sign itself. The metal was not twisted, it was bent (which caused the break) A tornado does not have that type of damage associated with it.

And as for the trams (I remember those now that you mention them!) that damage can either be straight-line winds or tornado. That is why the investigation team dismissed that as evidence. Even if they were to look closely, they would see a tram, not the underlying condition causing the trams mishap.

With the grass, there were certain areas around the park that the wind naturally swirled (back by SOB it did this a lot) so the grass could not be used as an indicator.