Understanding Our Safety Protocols: Lightning and Storms
In response to some recent criticism and misunderstandings about our safety rules, we’d like to share some important information about lightning and why we take these precautions to keep our guests safe.
Thunderstorms can move swiftly in Florida, and cells that are miles apart can quickly converge into a large storm. One of the most dangerous forms of lightning is a “bolt from the blue,” which typically originates from the back side of a thunderstorm and has been known to strike as far as 10 miles away from the storm.
Lightning can be as hot as 54,000°F (30,000°C), a temperature that is five times hotter than the surface of the Sun! Annually, lightning strikes kill 20-30 people and injure 270 in the United States.
Our top priority is the safety of our guests. To ensure this, our team continuously monitors the distance of lightning from our facility. We must have enough time to ensure every guest can safely exit the water and our ropes course before any storm gets too close to put our guests in harms way.
If a lightning strike occurs within a 10-mile radius of our facility, we must immediately begin evacuating the waterpark and our ropes course. The manufacturer of our ropes course also recommends adhering to the 10-mile radius rule.
We understand the frustration of not being able to participate in activities, but we couldn’t live with ourselves if someone were injured or killed by a lightning strike that we could have prevented. Storms can be unpredictable, sometimes stalling or changing direction, which makes it difficult to judge their movement accurately. Therefore, we exercise an abundance of caution before resuming any activity.
Typically, we enforce a one-hour waiting period with no strikes within our 10-mile boundary before allowing guests to resume activities. However, this timeframe may be adjusted longer or shorter based on storm activity in the area, but never less than 30 minutes.
Thank you for the understanding and we hope this article helps everyone understand our concern for your safety!
