2022 Responses
Response Activities
Hurricane Ian
ZDR3 provided mapping, monitoring, coordination, and deployment to various facilities throughout 2022.
Our most significant response activities occurred in September: Hurricane Ian was the deadliest storm to strike Florida since 1935. The destruction it left in its wake led to the most complex response ZDR3 has coordinated since we formed in 2019.
ZDR3 monitors zoological facilities in a storm’s path by superimposing NOAA
storm information over a map of potentially impacted facilities. ZDR3 created
this map of Hurricane Ian on 9/28/22.
After Ian made landfall as a Category 4 storm, it ravaged Florida zoos, aquariums, and other facilities that house non-domestic animals. Hurricane-strength winds and tornadoes the storm spawned left sites littered with downed trees and damaged electrical infrastructure.
Personnel at devastated facilities were faced with the overwhelming task of responding to the immediate needs of the animals in their care while absorbing the wreckage of their homes and communities.
Ian’s impact on Florida immediately galvanized the zoological community: more than 50 facilities (40 of them already part of the ZDR3 Network) from 13 states offered 100+ personnel, trucks, trailers, transport crates, off-site housing for displaced animals, and much more.
Two weeks after Ian made landfall, ZDR3 had assisted 12 zoological facilities. Seven requested consultations, 5 required direct onsite support. To read more about this response, please see our Facebook feed, beginning on September 25, 2022.
Thanks to the many responders and response supporters who helped ensure the success of the ZDR3 Hurricane Ian response. They validated the strength of the ZDR3 response network.
Texas Windstorm
A zoo in Texas was left in a tangled mess of branch and debris following a violent windstorm. ZDR3 rallied a disaster response team to help clean up the aftermath. Working alongside zoo staff, the team tackled the chaos efficiently. By day's end, the zoo, once buried under wreckage, stood cleared and ready for business. The ZDR3 responders’ expertise and gear made short work of a task that would have taken the zoo staff multiple days to tackle on their own.
