PITTSBURGH — It has been one year since a tornado touched down at the Pittsburgh Zoo. It’s the kind of natural disaster that could have had a serious ripple effect, but the staff was ready with a severe weather plan to keep guests and animals safe.
“We could see out the stairwell that there was a funnel cloud, right about there whenever we got those alerts on our phones, so we immediately went to shelter, sort of a lower indoor space,” Katie Hughes, Director of Marketing and Communications with the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium, said.
Katie Hughes and her team were ready, getting visitors, staff and animals to safety. There was some damage but no one was injured.
“We had some large trees fall. We had a tree fall in our parking lot and we had some trees fall throughout the park,” Hughes said.
Since then, the zoo has been certified as a “storm-ready” community by the National Weather Service.
“They’re not only prepared for the weather but they also know how to respond to the weather when that information comes in and then quickly share that information with everybody on the zoo ground who needs to know that information,” said Matt Brudy, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
The program helps community leaders better prepare for hazardous weather.
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