Planning for a Hurricane Requires Partnership

How The Florida Aquarium and SSA Group prepared for Hurricanes Helene and Milton

Florida has seen its share of hurricanes and adverse weather events over the years. The many cultural attractions across the state must always be prepared to ensure the animals and facilities are cared for properly during a challenging time.

In August 2024, The Florida Aquarium earned StormReady Certification from the National Weather Service, making it the first time The Florida Aquarium has received the recognition.

The StormReady program helps communities develop communication and safety skills to save lives and protect property before, during, and after severe weather events. The Florida Aquarium has demonstrated its readiness by meeting criteria set forth by the NWS, which includes:

• Establishing a 24-hour warning point and emergency operations center.
• Implementing multiple methods to receive severe weather warnings and forecasts to alert the public.
• Creating a system to monitor local weather conditions.
• Promoting public readiness through community seminars.
• Developing a formal hazardous weather plan, including training severe weather spotters, conducting emergency exercises and organizing an annual hurricane preparedness drill for staff.

According to The Florida Aquarium, this year for Hurricanes Helene and Milton hundreds of staff and volunteers from the Aquarium and SSA Group worked to secure the property at both the Downtown Tampa location and the Apollo Beach conservation campus.

• During Hurricane Helene, a dedicated team of around two dozen engineers and animal care staff remained at the Aquarium to care for the animals, monitor life support systems, manage generators, and assess any damage in real-time.
• When safe after the storms, staff returned to the Aquarium to assist with animal care and preparations to reopen the facility.

Prior to Hurricane Milton, the Aquarium moved nine penguins and many other animals to higher floors. Biologists transferred thousands of corals under the Aquarium's care to partner facilities and relocated a rescued sea turtle from the Aquarium’s Apollo Beach campus to the Tampa location.

“While we plan to care for and protect our vulnerable animals and coral during weather events, we’re glad to partner with SSA Group to ensure other areas of our facility are protected,” said Justin Savoie, Director of Marketing at The Florida Aquarium.

In addition to ensuring there are appropriate plans in place to monitor and protect animals, The Florida Aquarium worked with SSA Group to prepare the facility, which includes dining areas, cafes and storage spaces. Preparing these areas includes fortifying windows, unplugging all electrical appliances and distributing extra food to prevent waste.

“Our focus is on safety – for our employees, animals and the facility,” said Mindy Pevzner, general manager of The Florida Aquarium for SSA Group. “Making sure we’ve properly secured our cafes, dining and catering areas and having a plan to ensure employees have food and water is key to preparation. We recognize there are employees who need to stay with the animals during a hurricane and it’s our job to make sure they have access to nutritious meals during that time.”

“We do all we can to care for our employees as well. We have about 60 employees, and we provided sandwiches and water to those who needed them,” said Pevzner. “We also provide ride-out meals for the team that stays on-site to care for the animals.”

“We’re proud of our partnership and how we’ve collaborated over many years to ensure the safest possible outcome during a hurricane for the animals, our employees and the facility,” said Pevzner.