At least 60,000 people pack Hersheypark and Hersheypark Stadium on summer nights when both venues are full.

On those occasions, this small plot of Derry Twp. is turned into the biggest city in Pennsylvania between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

Protecting those masses from an approaching storm is the task of people who work around the clock in a bunkerlike room in Hersheypark Arena about the size of a one-car garage.

"It’s the kind of thing you’d expect to see in Three Mile Island," Hersheypark spokeswoman Kathleen Burrows said.

Known as the storm center, one side of the room is lined with TV monitors that stream live views of activity at key locations in the park. Across the room, a bank of computer monitors track real-time weather conditions provided by the National Weather Service and continously displayed through a 360-degree arc extending hours from Hershey in all directions.

"When we see storm cells over the Pittsburgh and Johnstown areas, that’s when we start tracking things," said Jason White, who provided security services to companies throughout Pennsylvania until 2005, when he became director of security for Hersheypark Entertainment Complex.

Lightning and wind are his biggest day-to-day worries. When lightning activity is detected 20 miles away, the park initiates a six-phased plan that if fully carried out, depending on the storm’s track, gets all park visitors evacuated from all rides.

Water attractions are evacuated first. By the time a storm is 10 miles out, park staff are getting people off roller coasters. White said they also start clearing rides such as the Ferris wheel, which takes longer to evacuate because it is done one car at a time.

The center has staff members trained as storm spotters to identify specific cloud formations and what they mean. The spotters can help determine storm severity to augment information updates coming into the center from the National Weather Service.

The process is timed, so by when a storm is directly overhead, all park visitors should be moved into safe areas such as pavilions and indoor locations, including the arena itself, if necessary. People also can go to their vehicles and return to the park when the storm has passed.

LEADING THE STATE

Since 2008, Hersheypark has been the only amusement park in Pennsylvania to be certified StormReady by the National Weather Service.

Among requirements to be certified are having a 24-hour warning point and emergency operations center, holding exercises so employees know what to do in case of severe weather and having alternative ways to receive severe weather information and alert the public in case electricity and the Internet are knocked out.

The Hersheypark Entertainment Complex, which also includes Hersheypark Stadium, is one of six commercial and industrial sites in Pennsylvania and 29 nationally that have the StormReady certification, according to the National Weather Service.

The others include Disneyland in California and Disney World in Florida, and Six Flags theme parks in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Texas.