Hurricane Frances Felt at Dragon*Con

by Amy Herring

While MSNBC reported today that Hurricane Frances is weakening, Dragon*Con is still feeling its effects. The Daily Dragon received random calls all Friday morning asking whether Dragon*Con was being cancelled. 2.5 million Floridians were ordered to evacuate as meteorologists tried to forecast Frances’s landfall, but, in the tradition of the circus, the Dragon*Con “show” will go on.

Not to say that Dragon*Con will be free entirely from side-effects caused by Hurricane Frances. One Artist Alley exhibitor groaned that his best customer could not make it to the convention this year. Reason? The regular conventioneer could not get a flight out of his home in Florida. MSNBC coverage confirmed that queues at Florida airports were growing as travelers dealt with cancelled flights.

Hurricane Frances made front-page news with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporting that thousands of Florida evacuees were jamming the State’s highways and filling up hotels in South Georgia. In this regard, Dragon*Con might have had its own gale-force effect. The newspaper also reported hotel sell-outs as close as 15 miles south of Atlanta as a potential effect of the hurricane. But, as many conventioneers have learned the hard way, Dragon*Con sells out many hotels in the Atlanta area over the Labor Day weekend.

Hurricane Frances is taking its toll on Dragon*Con weather. Possible showers and thunderstorms as a result of the approaching storm are predicted from the Gulf Coast to the Ohio Valley, according to the Journal-Constitution. The paper’s local forecast confirmed the possibility of late afternoon thunderstorms today, cloudy weather on both Saturday and Sunday with afternoon rain possible Sunday. Rain is predicted as likely Monday. Thank Frances for the rain. Thank the Daily Dragon for reminding you to bring your umbrella.