The movie 2012 was not based on 2004…but it could have been
Once Hurricane Charley passed, an odd historical footnote occurred a few weeks later. Hurricane Frances, the sixth major story of that season, also headed inland, this time from the Florida Panhandle. It reached Orlando on September 3, 2004, less than three weeks after Charley had done the same. While Frances wasn’t quite as damaging, it still caused property damage in excess of $9 billion. That’s two massive weather events that reached Orlando in 20 days.
Having so recently prepared for a similar event, Disney officials recognized that they had to treat Frances the same as Charley. Once again, Walt Disney World closed. The difference is that they shut down for an entire day on September 4, 2004, something that never happened during Charley. They also closed early on September 3rd. Disney described it as “an abbreviated schedule” with Animal Kingdom closing at 5 p.m., Hollywood Studios at 6 p.m., Magic Kingdom at 8 p.m., and Epcot at 9 p.m.. Finally, they closed again for the full day on Sunday, September 5th. Yes, Hurricane Frances wiped out an entire weekend at Walt Disney World including two whole days at the parks.
To their credit, Disney was the gold standard in disseminating information during the catastrophic situation. This was their statement on September 4:
"As of this afternoon, all Walt Disney World Guests are well and safely housed in our resort hotels. All areas of the Walt Disney World Resort are safely withstanding the storm and continue to have power.
We anticipate opening our theme parks on Monday, Sept. 6, however we will not open unless it is safe for our Guests and our Cast. We continue to monitor the storm through information from the National Weather Service and consultation with emergency preparedness officials."
As far as trivia notes go, it’s amazing that the company has closed their Orlando property early only a handful of times, yet two of them occurred in such a short timeframe. And 2004 hurricane season wasn’t finished yet. The deadliest weather event of that year was Hurricane Jeanne, which formed on September 13th. More than 3,000 people died during this storm, most of them on tropical islands south of Florida. Jeanne’s American impact wasn’t quite as severe since it dissipated as it reached the coast. Still, it caused roughly $7.7 billion in property damage. Since everyone at Disney knew how terrifying this particular hurricane was prior to its arrival, park planners once again exercised every possible precaution. They closed the parks on September 26, 2004.
Summarizing the 2004 season, Walt Disney World closed early on August 13, 2004 and then again on September 3, 2004. The park followed this by closing for full days on September 4th and 5th, the ONLY time in the history of Disneyland or Walt Disney World that the parks closed for consecutive days. After that, yet another storm caused them to shut down on September 26th. In the storied existence of Walt Disney World, the park has closed for a full day only five times…and three of them occurred in September of 2004. That was irrefutably the worst month ever to visit Orlando.
Fallout from the storm
A park with as much vegetation and man-made landmarks as Walt Disney World couldn’t escape three different hurricanes without some damage. To the credit of Disney architects and structural engineers, the amount of property irreparably harmed was minimal. Flagpoles in multiple parks were wrecked, including one at Pecos Bill’s that the winds whipped until it was almost at a right angle.
Many of the guide signs in place at the various themed lands in Magic Kingdom suffered various impairments, a couple of them fatally so. Several of the trees there also became uprooted during the storm. Tom Sawyer Island suffered the brunt of it, as its foliage couldn’t withstand the wrath of the hurricanes. Multiple cast member buildings outside the parks lost their roofs at least partially. A couple had their entire roofs fly away. One hundred mile per hour winds sound bad in theory, but it’s only when a person faces the damage left in its wake that they appreciate the savagery of Mother Nature.
When admirers discuss the plucky, can-do spirit of Disney cast members, they do so because of the way these employees act during such trying times. The Disney staff worked around the clock after the storm ended so that the park could open again. The most amazing feat was on August 14, 2004. On that day, in the wake of a storm that caused 11 figures in property damage, Disney opened with business as usual. There were only two concessions to the hurricane. The FastPass system wasn’t operational, and the monorails were down most of the time. I cannot stress enough that Disney employees are amazing people.
Hurricane Floyd
Five years prior to Charley and Frances, Hurricane Floyd set a dubious record. It became the first hurricane to force the closure of Walt Disney World since its inception in 1971. Putting the situation another way, Disney never had to close during hurricane season for 27 years. Then, it had to close four times in five years.
The difference between Floyd and its successors was primarily in the way that guests discovered their information. The late ‘90s were the Wild West of the internet. Not everyone had an understanding of, much less constant access to online activities. Many who did were still using dated solutions such as AOL. What does this have to do with vacationing in Orlando? Few people could check the web to receive status updates about the hotel, the parks, or even the weather. As such, a larger number of guests wound up stranded during Hurricane Floyd. Also, the front desks at hotels were even more chaotic than in 2004 and 2016. They were the equivalent of 411 AND 911 for imperiled guests.
Take a moment to appreciate the power of rapidly disseminated information. In 1999, guests relied on cable television for virtually everything. What happens during 100 mile per hour winds? Cable television and power both go out. Getting trapped at a Disney hotel during Hurricane Matthew was inconvenient. Disney fans still had their phones, tablets, laptops, and the ability to access streaming videos to pass the time. That wasn’t an option in 2004, and it wasn’t even a consideration at the turn of the millennium. Guests of Floyd had it the worst of anybody. They had to rely on information at the front lobby and from Disney cast members at the various parks. It was a mob scene and legitimately one of the worst days in the history of Walt Disney World.
However, unlike the later hurricanes of 2004, Floyd wasn’t at maximum velocity when it reached the coast of Florida. In fact, it largely remained parallel rather than moving inland as was the case with Charley, Frances, and Jeanne. Floyd unexpectedly changed directions last-minute and didn't enter the United States until Cape Fear, North Carolina, more than 500 miles away. And by that point, it had reduced from a Category 4 to a Category 2 hurricane.
As far as The Walt Disney Corporation was concerned, it was the greatest near miss ever. Once again, the theme park located only 60 miles away from the Atlantic Ocean had survived a hurricane scare. They would feel safe for almost five years. Yes, Walt Disney World was open for 33 years before their first major hurricane reached the property, a statistic that everyone involved with the Florida Project gladly would have accepted in the 1960s.
To this day, the Most Magical Place on Earth has proven strikingly fortunate with regards to the near misses of hurricanes. Even the 2016 threat, Hurricane Matthew, once a Category 5, deviated from its projected path, thereby sparing the citizens of Orlando yet again. The power of the Most Magical Place on Earth even extends to its weather.
Comments
I was there during 9/11. My partner and I had flown down on the 8th for a short vacation for his birthday. We had gone to Epcot that morning, rode Test Track, and was headed towards the Living Seas when we were stopped by cast members telling us to head towards the exit, the park was closed. Someone asked why, and they said the twin towers in NY had been attacked and were no more. We didn't believe it, and walked to our car in the parking lot. We sat there and flipped on the radio, and sure enough it was true. Driving out, the traffic was jammed up getting around, and we finally made it back to Port Orleans French Quarter where we were staying . We turned on the tv and of course it was all over the news, it was so emotional. I called my mom at that point, as I had not told her I was going out of town, and we both started crying, it could have been my plane, you never know. We went to the pool, and it was absolutely packed, not a space not taken. Disney was on 'extreme lockdown', so you weren't allowed into any other resorts or anywhere else on Disney property, so we camped out by the pool for awhile with everyone else in stunned unity. We were supposed to fly home on the 12th, and we quickly learned that no flights would be going out anytime soon, so we went to the front desk and they offered us a free night on Wednesday, that was so great. The next morning, it was so surreal... what do you do? Do we go to the park and try to enjoy it amidst such a huge tragedy? We decided to go, and Disney already had the security check points in place. We didn't know when we wold get home, so we ended up staying until the weekend, hoping to be able to fly home at anytime. We went to the Magic Kingdom on Friday, which was during a tropical storm, but they had a moment of silence for the victims of 9/11 at the flagpole, it was so silent and sad, I will never forget that moment. We decided to drive our rental car home, which was a Chrysler convertible, not the best vehicle for such a long trip, as we were driving back to Connecticut, but had to go to the airport in Rhode Island first, as that's where we had flown out of and left our car. We had no choice, since air travel was still grounded and we had to get home. Driving past NY, we actually could still see smoke rising from where the towers had been. That is one trip I will never ever forget.