New Orleans Zoo

[Mephisto]

Apparently someone had anticipated the possibility of a catastrophic flood in New Orleans. The New Orleans zoo had prepared for this eventuality years ago. They had stockpiled days worth of food and medicine for all the animals and apparently set aside suitable pens for animals that needed evacuation.

They lost only THREE animals (including two river otters). It's a sad day when the curators of a zoo adequately plan for a foreseeable disaster while the remainder of government shrugs aside the possibilities.

(source CNN)

[The Central Scrutinizer]

And according to yesterday's NY Times, the Art Museum fared equally well, losing only 1 outdoor sculpture.

[Grammatron]

Hardly comparable.

[CapelDodger]

Originally posted by Mephisto
Apparently someone had anticipated the possibility of a catastrophic flood in New Orleans. The New Orleans zoo had prepared for this eventuality years ago. They had stockpiled days worth of food and medicine for all the animals and apparently set aside suitable pens for animals that needed evacuation.

They lost only THREE animals (including two river otters). It's a sad day when the curators of a zoo adequately plan for a foreseeable disaster while the remainder of government shrugs aside the possibilities.

(source CNN) They recognised the contingency, they made practicable plans according with their resources and they executed the plan. The scale is immaterial, the way of thinking is all.

I would like to think those river otters are exploring their new world together, undrowned. Sadly, I can't stop the "alligator" concept intruding.

[The Central Scrutinizer]

Originally posted by Grammatron
Hardly comparable.

Why not?

[Manny]

Whilst the scale is different I think they're at least a little comparable. In fairness, the zoo survived primarily because it is on higher ground than most of New Orleans (which probably deserves its own comment). But the overriding thing for me is that the New Orleans zoo realized that they were in a hurricane zone and they prepared. They studied the lessons of Andrew (http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/09/07/katrina.zoos/index.html), prepared accordingly and drilled drilled drilled. The New Orleans government couldn't even take lessons from their own hurricanes, let alone other places'. Georges exposed the weaknesses in their "plans." Ivan made them even more crystal clear, with an emphasis on the need to provide transit. The drill "Hurricane Pam" (http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/02/hurricane.drill/) clearly outlined that local and state governments were to have adequate supplies to equip shelters for 3-5 days and correctly predicted approximately how many people would fail to evacuate whether by choice or not.

That last is the biggest difference. At the end of the day, you can force a tiger to evacuate; you can't force people. And you can fit all your tigers into a couple of semi trailers.