Seaworld Orlando and Hurricane Milton

[filovirus]

...and also I guess Busch Gardens. And Animal Kingdom. And I suppose any other animal facilities in the area, but those three come to mind as they're always talked about when it comes to severe weather events like this one. Mostly Seaworld for the water-based nature of the animals.

What is the protocol? What do they do? If things flood, how does a marine park like Seaworld manage? With some animals it seems easy enough, but my brain is struggling to comprehend what you do with an orca if everything floods, how you'd keep them contained- even worse, what would happen if the water becomes electrified.

Sending love to any zoochatters impacted. This is a nightmare to watch from a distance- I can't imagine being there.

 

[Austin the Sengi]

Other than closing the parks to the general public and relocating most of their animals to storm-proof holding areas; that is about it for SeaWorld and the other Orlando facilities. If anything, it’s ZooTampa and Busch Gardens that will be facing the worst of the storm; and at least from the former, it sounded like they were going to be moving a lot of their animals around in preparation.

 

[Wisp O' Mist]

Orlando is located over a hundred miles inland from Tampa, where Hurricane Milton is (roughly) expected to make landfall.

Disney's Animal Kingdom and SeaWorld Orlando will be fine. The one good thing about hurricanes is that they weaken, usually significantly, after they reach land.

Make no mistake, though, I'm hardly dismissing Milton as a threat. This storm is still expected to be the 4th strongest hurricane in history by the time it makes landfall. Tampa is going to get seriously messed up by Milton.

When a pair of hurricanes (2004's Frances & Jeanne, for those curious) hit my hometown on Florida's east coast, it took the town nearly three whole years to recover.

While the worst of the damage was repaired after about a year, it was still commonplace to see houses with tarps for roofs, boats in places that they certainly shouldn't have been, and docks without boards for at least two years afterwards. Things didn't really return to "normal" until midway through 2007... just in time for the Great Recession to hit only a few months later.

Now, those were relatively minor hurricanes (A strong cat 2 and a weak cat 3, for reference) in comparison to what Milton is going to become. Hurricane Milton is going to be a fierce cat 4, if not a terrifying cat 5, when it hits Tampa. It's likely going decimate any and all structures on and within a few miles of the bay.

Ergo, it's not Animal Kingdom and SeaWorld that we need to worry about, but ZooTampa and Busch Gardens! Neither is located directly on Tampa Bay (ZooTampa is roughly 6.8 miles away, while Busch Gardens is about 7.3 miles away), so they shouldn't have to be overly concerned about storm surge as that's the real killer when it comes to hurricanes....

But I don't doubt that both facilities will be adversely affected by Milton. I just hope that their indoor animal holding facilities are build to withstand category 5 hurricanes!

 

[15399]

...and also I guess Busch Gardens. And Animal Kingdom. And I suppose any other animal facilities in the area, but those three come to mind as they're always talked about when it comes to severe weather events like this one. Mostly Seaworld for the water-based nature of the animals.

What is the protocol? What do they do? If things flood, how does a marine park like Seaworld manage? With some animals it seems easy enough, but my brain is struggling to comprehend what you do with an orca if everything floods, how you'd keep them contained- even worse, what would happen if the water becomes electrified.

Sending love to any zoochatters impacted. This is a nightmare to watch from a distance- I can't imagine being there.

There are numerous historical examples of zoos responding to hurricanes that you might be interesting in doing some research into. Look into Zoo Miami and Hurricane Andrew, or Audubon Zoo and Hurricane Katrina for two major examples. While not technically classified as a hurricane, New York Aquarium also got completely decimated by Superstorm Sandy. Every single zoo needs to have emergency disaster plans and contingencies in place- especially for areas where these storms are common. Hurricanes are far from uncommon for the state of Florida and they are easy for meteorologists to monitor, so I'd be shocked if all the Tampa area zoological facilities don't have robust hurricane plans in place that'll be taking effect.

 

[Strathmorezoo]

Just seen on BBC news that Hurricane Milton has been downgraded from a category 4 to a category 3. Also ,because moving zoo animals to safer areas, after recent deadly storms is not often realistic, alot of animal houses have been made more storm proof.

 

[SeaOtterHQ]

While not technically classified as a hurricane, New York Aquarium also got completely decimated by Superstorm Sandy. Every single zoo needs to have emergency disaster plans and contingencies in place- especially for areas where these storms are common. Hurricanes are far from uncommon for the state of Florida and they are easy for meteorologists to monitor, so I'd be shocked if all the Tampa area zoological facilities don't have robust hurricane plans in place that'll be taking effect.

Yes, what devastated the New York Aquarium was infrastructure unsuited to withstand the storm surge and lack of preparation, since NYC is not a hurricane hotspot. The entire city was blindsided because a year earlier Hurricane Irene had been hyped up as potentially lethal only to materialize as little more than a rough rainstorm, so everyone assumed Sandy would be the same and didn't take it seriously.

Luckily the aquarium staff managed to save 80-90% of their animals, including all of the marine mammals (they were caring for a walrus calf at the time along with their usual ensemble of sea otters, seals, and sea lions). Most of the casualties came from the freshwater koi that were killed by the influx of saltwater.

Although the aquarium reopened in Spring 2013 and debuted its highly anticipated shark exhibit in 2018, it wasn't until 2022 that the entire aquarium was restored - with more floodproof facilities - and viewable to the public.

You can read more about the impact of Sandy and the crucial 72 hours afterwards here:

As the water rose three feet high in Dohlin’s ground-floor office, he watched it pour down a stairwell into a basement that housed exhibits and the equipment that keeps them alive.

“‘We lost the aquarium,’” he thought.

Basements were under up to 15 feet of water. Generators were either damaged or useless because equipment needed to distribute their power was fried. The pump house that draws from the ocean to refresh the 1.5 million-gallon exhibits was out of commission, as were systems that treat the seawater, tailor it to different environments and maintain the oxygen levels, temperatures and water chemistry the aquarium’s 12,000 animals need.

None had been evacuated. That would have been very difficult to arrange in the few days the aquarium had to prepare, Dohlin said.

Scrambling to save the collection, 18 staffers used hospital-style canisters to get crucial oxygen into the water, rebuilt filters and pumps on the fly and called in equipment from the Wildlife Conservation Society’s four zoos. They mixed artificial seawater in garbage cans and warmed rooms with space heaters to keep water temperatures up, animal operations director David DeNardo said.

At the same time, managers weighed how much longer they had to get systems going before having to ship animals away, an unwelcome prospect for already stressed creatures. On Nov. 1, the wildlife society announced that a decision would probably have to be made in 24 hours. But key systems were at least partially running in all the exhibits two days later, and the animals stayed.

NYC aquarium rebounds, rebuilds after Sandy

Another case worth mentioning is the Moody Gardens in Galveston, Texas, which was hit hard by Hurricane Ike in 2008:

In contrast, the Rain Forest Pyramid basement was submerged, killing about 80 percent of the freshwater fish. Among the survivors were about 70 out of about 450 Lake Victoria cichlids, the last remaining members of a nearly extinct species, Whittaker said.

Among the dead were other reptiles, a dozen bats, a diseased shark, cold-water animals that could not be transferred to the kelp tank, several turtles and a tentacled snake.

The Houston Zoo agreed to act as a staging point for transfers to other facilities while Moody Gardens is restored, Whittaker said. All but 11 of the cichlids were transferred to Houston, as were all the animals in temporary cages on the second floor of the Aquarium Pyramid, including macaws, reptiles and mammals.

Animals that could be moved from the lowest levels of the Rain Forest Pyramid and other exposed areas — including parrots, an ocelot and a cotton-top tamarin — were placed in the Aquarium Pyramid, which is about 20 feet above sea level.

About 7 p.m. on Sept. 12, the staff waded to the hotel through winds up to 50 mph and chest-deep water to wait out the storm.

"We walked out of there just hoping things would be OK the next morning," Whittaker said.

About 2 a.m. Sept. 13, Whittaker put on a wetsuit and, in what he says his wife called an "onset of stupidity," waded back to the pyramids to check on the animals.

He very nearly didn't make it back. The backside of the storm hit and Whittaker wondered if he would make it through the rising water and high winds.

https://www.chron.com/neighborhood/...ardens-reopens-despite-Ike-damage-1608778.php