{"id":310352,"date":"2025-10-17T09:17:24","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T09:17:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/310352\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T09:17:24","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T09:17:24","slug":"cleaned-up-phoenix-zoo-set-to-reopen-following-300k-in-storm-damage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/310352\/","title":{"rendered":"Cleaned up Phoenix Zoo set to reopen following $300K in storm damage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1760692644_648_snapshot-5.jpg\" alt=\"Phoenix Zoo sets up storm recovery fund\" class=\"sr-only\" data-v-7a5d4fdb=\"\"\/>  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox10phoenix.com\/video\/1725709\" data-v-7a5d4fdb=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Phoenix Zoo sets up storm recovery fund<\/a> <\/p>\n<p data-v-7a5d4fdb=\"\">The Phoenix Zoo is reopening Friday morning after closing for three days to clean up damage caused by Monday afternoon&#8217;s microburst. FOX 10&#8217;s Lindsey Ragas has more on how you can help.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\"><strong>PHOENIX<\/strong> &#8211; The Phoenix Zoo is reopening Friday morning after closing for three days to clean up damage caused by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox10phoenix.com\/weather\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Monday afternoon&#8217;s microburst<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">Zoo officials said the park is in much better shape days after the storm hit.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\"><strong>REALTED: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox10phoenix.com\/news\/how-phoenix-zoo-staff-prepare-animals-stormy-weather\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>How Phoenix Zoo staff prepare animals for stormy weather<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KSAZ\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">What they&#8217;re saying:<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">&#8220;We saw nearly two dozen trees were downed. We had some structural damage. We had a ton of water, mud, leaf litter and debris all scattered throughout the zoo,&#8221; said Linda Hardwick of the Phoenix Zoo.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">The storm caused significant damage, estimated at $300,000, which includes lost revenue from being closed during what is normally one of its busiest months.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">One of the most notable casualties was the 50-foot floating Christmas tree, an iconic decoration for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.phoenixzoo.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>annual ZooLights event<\/strong><\/a>. Crews must now strategize to remove and repair it.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">Hardwick confirmed the storm damage will not impact the annual ZooLights event, which is scheduled to open the night before Thanksgiving for its 34th year.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">The zoo, which was open the day of the storm, worked quickly to move guests to safety. Cleanup has been &#8220;all hands on deck&#8221; for the past three days.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KSAZ\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">What you can do:<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">The zoo is now seeking community support.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">&#8220;If anybody has connections to a nursery or any trees that they&#8217;re wanting to donate to the zoo, we&#8217;re looking for about two dozen that could possibly replace the ones that we lost,&#8221; Hardwick said.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">The zoo has also created a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.phoenixzoo.org\/support\/storm-damage-recovery-fund\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>storm recovery fund<\/strong><\/a> for financial donations to offset the estimated costs.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6fc2855c=\"\">The Phoenix Zoo will open to the public at 9 a.m. Friday, with passholders granted early access at 8 a.m.<\/p>\n<p>     <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox10phoenix.com\/tag\/weather\/severe-weather\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-6fc2855c=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Severe Weather<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox10phoenix.com\/tag\/pets-animals\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-6fc2855c=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Pets and Animals<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox10phoenix.com\/tag\/news\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-6fc2855c=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Phoenix Zoo sets up storm recovery fund The Phoenix Zoo is reopening Friday morning after closing for three&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":310353,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,50,8047,1589,5313,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,313],"class_list":{"0":"post-310352","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arizona","10":"tag-az","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-pets-animals","13":"tag-phoenix","14":"tag-severe-weather","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa","21":"tag-weather"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115388760863050006","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}