Prospect Park Zoo Remains Shut Soon after Ophelia Flood Destruction

Two months just after staying inundated with a lot more than 7 inches of rain and runoff from Tropical Storm Ophelia, the Prospect Park Zoo in Brooklyn stays temporarily closed for repairs with no reopening day scheduled, zoo officials reported.

The zoo, which is slightly underneath avenue level alongside Flatbush Avenue on the northeastern side of Prospect Park, keeps a lot of its infrastructure in basements and subbasements, together with boilers electrical machines heating, ventilation and air-conditioning and “aquatic life assistance devices,” according to a assertion from the zoo on Saturday. All had been impacted as storm drains backed up and the basements were being flooded with up to 25 feet of h2o “at an unparalleled rate” in the course of the storm on Sept. 29, the assertion explained.

No animals were being harmed or had to be moved, but the flooding caused “millions of bucks of destruction,” reported Craig Piper, the vice president of city zoos for the Wildlife Conservation Culture, which runs the Prospect Park Zoo, together with the Bronx, Queens and Central Park zoos and the New York Aquarium. “As we shift from triage to restoration of the facilities, we will keep on to evaluate when we will reopen to the community.” The zoo’s prolonged closure was formerly noted by Gothamist.

The h2o has been pumped out of the basements and the zoo is now drawing its ability from generators it will use short-term boilers for warmth as essential, the statement mentioned. Images inside zoo structures showed cleanup and restoration equipment getting stored subsequent to animal displays.

All of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s amenities closed on the working day of the storm soon after Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York declared a state of emergency, the business mentioned. (At the Central Park Zoo, a woman sea lion known as Sally applied the flooding to escape briefly from her enclosure.) But the other zoos ended up not as impacted by flooding as Prospect Park was, the society claimed, and they reopened the future working day.

The Prospect Park Zoo also endured substantial injury through Hurricanes Henri and Ida in 2021, Mr. Piper explained, incorporating that “we be expecting these extraordinary temperature styles will keep on in the future” for the reason that of local climate modify. The zoo’s restoration will be aimed at stopping future flooding, he claimed.

Officers have pressured the have to have to enhance the city’s infrastructure to tackle additional repeated and far more extreme storms. The history-breaking rainfall final month shut down much of the subway, grounded flights, swamped streets, and caused closures and travel delays across the New York metropolitan location.

It was the 2nd-wettest September in New York City history, in accordance to knowledge from the National Temperature Assistance.

Many times just before Ophelia, a hefty storm dropped about an inch of rain as 1000’s of men and women collected for a concert on the Terrific Lawn in Central Park. Officials said that the significant gear employed to create the live performance and the foot visitors it attracted “fully damaged” a third of the garden in the course of the downpour, resulting in its closure until eventually April, 6 months previously than its regular annual closure.