Chehaw suffers minor damage from Irma

ALBANY — Chehaw park suffered minor damage from Tropical Storm Irma, including a few toppled trees, some broken links to the cage at the coati exhibit and broken fencing at the park’s bear exhibit.

The zoo was closed on Tuesday so workers could assess damages and begin making repairs.

Chehaw spokeswoman Morgan Burnette said the damage was significant enough to shut down the coati exhibit for a couple of days and the bear exhibit until further notice.

“The coati exhibit should be back to normal by the weekend, but the bear exhibit will require more extensive repairs and it will be closed until further notice,” Burnette said.

All of the animals at Chehaw’s zoo were safe during the storm, Burnette said. Many were placed in their night shelters away from the wind and rain. The bears and the coatis will remain in their “night habitats” until their daytime exhibit areas can be repaired.

“None of the animals had to be transported off site,” she said. “It was nothing new and at no time stressful for the animals. We just opened the door and let them go into the areas they would typically go into at night.”

As for the coati exhibit, some small branches poked holes through the top of the animals’ caged exhibit area, Burnette said.

“These animals are very much like raccoons,” she noted. “They tend to have that troublemaker personality. They like to get out and explore, so we need to keep them out of the exhibit area until it can be repaired.

“The repair to the bear exhibit will take much longer. At this time we don’t know how long.”

Long-term plans are underway to relocate both the bear and the red fox exhibits to another site within the zoo, she said. However, Burnette said she was uncertain if the damage to the bear habitat will mean the relocation could take place now.

Aside from minimal damage to the two animal exhibits and a few downed trees, she said there was little other damage at Chehaw.

“We were very lucky,” Burnette said.

At the campground, about 75 campers arrived Thursday and Friday, but many left and headed farther north or west as Irma’s projected path turned toward Albany. By Tuesday morning, only about 10 campers remained.

“I think most are waiting for power to be restored or for highways heading south to clear up from traffic,” Burnette said.

The Chehaw spokeswoman pointed out one walkway that had a fallen tree on it and a portion of the handrail knocked out. She said she expects that section will be repaired right away and hopes that SPLOST funds can be used in the near future to repair all of the wooden walkways throughout the park.

“These walkways have been here forever,” Burnette said. “Really, they were built over 40 years ago. We can patch them for now, but our long-term goal is to replace them.”