Coastin' Steve posted this note from Joel Styer on RRC. Thought you folks would be interested:
To the casual visitor, Knoebels may have appeared just as it always
had, with little evidence that anything happened in the last three days.
Indeed, several people had no idea. That says a lot for the staff and
their preparations for this weekend. And this was the worst flood at the
park since June of 1972 (Hurricane Agnes). With only two days to
prepare, they managed the following by Saturday afternoon:
All major (adult) rides were operating except the Italian Trapeze and
the Bumper Boats (the Italian Trapeze was being worked on and the bumper
boat pond was already cleaned.
Many of the kiddie rides were operating, a hand full were not (more
later)
All walkways were free of mud and debris, the grounds had a fresh
coating of gravel (I cannot even venture a guess how much they used)
All of the major food area were open (a few smaller ones were not). They
even had Ice Cream and Waffles (made my day).
All the food seating areas were very clean.
All the park benches were clean.
The grounds were clean and little mud could be seen, very little
debris could be seen.
The covered bridge was put back together and had a fresh landing of
blacktop on the light house side.
Much of the mini golf course was cleaned but not quite ready for
opening.
Many game stands were open.
Both trains were operating.
Most rest rooms were clean and working.
The office was operating even though it too had eight inches of water in
it.
There was no odor at all from the flood.
And Jack was at the Bumper Cars just like always.
The park actually reopened Friday!
Considering how much water and mud covered all of the lower areas, the
above is nothing short of astounding for two days work. Knoebels and
their staff have always amazed me with their attitude and dedication but
this time they topped themselves. Even master ride builder Lenny
Adams was out along with Bob Rarick (who took the excellent on-line
Twister construction photos several years ago) putting down fresh gravel
- everyone pitched in for the cleanup. I saw Joe Muscato and his
wife, they arrived back from vacation the night of the flood, what an
awful thing to come home to. As I was walking up toward the
campground, a maintenance man stopped to show me a picture of 'stuff''
from the park that just floated downstream and piled up. He was on his
way to work on the Italian Trapeze. They felt a responsibility to get
everything safely running that was feasible.
They had to throw away a lot of food, prizes and souvenirs - anything
that was near the water. I watched as they threw case after case of
bottled water into a dump truck along with other supplies inside a food
service area. The loss is tremendous. The flooding came so quick that
there was little time to react. No work was done on the Flying Turns as
cleaning rightfully took precedence (although they did get a LOT done
there a few days before the flood).
They did get a some help though, some local fire companies came in and
hosed off the walkways. Del Grossos Amusement Park sent 200 hoagies for
the people working for cleanup (you just have to love them for that.
Many times Knoebels has helped or offered to help other parks in their
time of need, it was nice to see it work the other way. DelGrossos is
another park run by nice people). And there were volunteers who have a
true love for Knoebels.
I do think maybe the cleanliness of the park today may have people
thinking that the flood wasn't so bad, but it was. Most people will have
no idea how much work was put into getting things ready. All you need to
do is look at the pictures on Knoebels web site (
www.knoebels.com) and
realize that much of what you see has already been cleaned, think about
how much effort that takes even with a lot of people. One of the things
that impresses me is that their recovery appeared very methodical and
organized, likely born out from dealing with previous flooding (I think
in '72, '75, '96 and 2004).
Most of the damage was to Kiddieland however. The Panther Cars look
awful, the track is twisted and buckled at numerous places. The cars
were open and drying out. The Hand Cars weren't much better, the track
being washed out in places but I suspect that will be fixed fairly
quickly. The S&G (kiddie) Carousel got hit pretty hard from the looks of
it. A few other kiddie rides were out of service. Kosmo's Klubhouse was
being cleaned up today. The pool is still full of muddy water, that will
take a bit more time to drain, clean and fill. The newer water area
behind it (near the Twister entrance) was being cleaned by about 8-10
people.
At the Phoenix Steakhouse, there was a small booth set up with photos of
the flood in it, people were amazed. At the park office, they had a
computer set up that had a slide show running and a lot of photos from
the flood. Again, people were amazed, many tried to take photos of the
monitor (with their flash on no less!). The crowds were very light today
and many rides were close to walk on, including Phoenix. The weather was
nice and it was a nice day to be in the park.
I didn't mean for this to get so long and convoluted. I wasn't sure what
to expect when I got to Knoebels but the more I looked, the more I
realized how much work had been done. I am still incredibly impressed
with what they accomplished in such a short time. We all owe our thanks
to everyone who put the long hours and hard work into putting the pieces
back together. Hopefully they won't have to do it again any time soon.
Joel Styer
1 July 2006
Topic: Knoebels Flooded (Read 5590 times)
