Wild animal park rebuilding, grieving loss of animals after storm

TROUP COUNTY, Ga. — Sunday marked one week since a tornado in Troup County destroyed parts of a wild animal park.

Wild Animal Safari Pine Mountain allowed Channel 2 Action News inside to tour the damage and see the progress made toward cleaning up.

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Katie Harrison is zoo director and she said during the storm, thousands of trees were twisted off. Almost every animal enclosure in the park was damaged or destroyed.

Two tigers escaped their enclosure. Administration alerted the public to beware, but Harrison said they did not go far. They were safely tranquilized. Sunday, they were back in their repaired enclosure together.

Harrison said five animals died in the storm.

“This is the first time I’ve been able to talk about it without just sobbing. So, it’s not easy, but in the big scheme of things we have 550 animals, and it was a horrible, horrible, I mean, huge tornado,” said Harrison.

Some of the animals had to move to other zoos while their exhibits are being repaired.

Harrison said the noise of the cleanup has complicated things and the machinery can be loud and distressing to some of the animals.

On top of that, the park is closed during a crucial time for business.

“Spring break is a huge time for us,” said Lisa Brady.

Brady estimates the park will lose $750,000 in revenue, which is 10 percent of their annual business.

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“It was particularly devastating because Katie and the team had done a phenomenal job of preparing for spring break. As you saw, we had several new enclosures that were going to be upgraded, and we were making a lot of positive changes,” said Brady.

Harrison expects to reopen the driving portion of the park this month.

The walking portion will be open in sections and workers estimate it to open up again in June.

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