Video: Tampa zoo rushes animals to safety as Milton hits
Residents are bracing for the worst storm the city has faced in years - perhaps a century
Tampa: With carrots and strawberries, zookeepers lure Chompers, the porcupine, into an animal carrier, hoping to keep the creature—and all the rest of the inhabitants of Zoo Tampa—safe from Hurricane Milton's fury.
Orangutans watch the flurry of activity before allowing their keepers to move them safely while African elephants are herded gently to the protected areas.
Tiffany Burns, director of animal programs at the zoo, says it has a few hurricane-proof buildings where they will move all the animals - very carefully.
"We hope that the animals have very minimal stress; that's always our goal," the 41-year-old says.
Florida's west coast is still recovering from Hurricane Helene's widespread devastation. The storm roared onshore as a Category 4 storm on September 26.
Now, with the debris from Helene still strewn about, the battered region is bracing for Milton, a potentially catastrophic Category 5 storm that is taking aim at Tampa.
Residents are bracing for the worst storm the city has faced in years - perhaps a century.
The city of roughly 400,000 people, separated from the Gulf of Mexico by Tampa Bay, faces the worst impact from storm surges and flooding.
Burns explained that staff have tried to maintain a positive attitude as they prepare the zoo but fear Milton's impact on their own homes.
"It's tough to see such a big storm coming back toward us so soon," she says. They are not alone.