When Michelle Reininger went to bed on Thursday, June 15, she wasn’t worried about the weather. The last time she checked, the forecast had called for scattered showers. But in the middle of the night, an emergency alert blared on her phone: a severe thunderstorm warning. Winds were expected to reach 80 miles per hour. People should take cover in their homes. “I thought, Is this a joke?” she recalled.
Ten minutes later, she lost power as the storm tore through.
By 5 a.m., the worst had passed. Ms. Reininger dressed quickly in the dark. She needed to go check on her charges: the more than 300 residents of Chimp Haven, the chimpanzee sanctuary nearby, where she served as the colony director.
As soon as she left her home, the storm’s toll became clear to her. “Everywhere I went, there was a tree across the road or power lines down,” Ms. Reininger said. She and her colleagues, who were also making their way to work, soon discovered that a tree was blocking the main road to the sanctuary.
The group gathered at a nearby convenience store. As they formulated a plan, Ms. Reininger received a text message from the maintenance supervisor, who had found an alternate route into Chimp Haven. Trees were down not only on local roads, the supervisor said, but a large pine tree had also fallen in one of the chimpanzee habitats. The upper branches were resting atop the 18-foot wall surrounding the enclosure, creating a ramp that the chimps could use to escape.
For their own safety, and the safety of others, the chimpanzees needed to be secured inside immediately. “It had to be done now,” Ms. Reininger said. “There was no time.”
Safe and sound
Chimp Haven is a retirement home for research chimpanzees, including many owned or supported by the National Institutes of Health. Before arriving in Keithville, La., many were used in research on H.I.V. or hepatitis; others were involved in studies that focused on cognition or behavior. The sanctuary, which sits on 200 forested acres, aims to provide the chimps with a tranquil place to live out their days.
But extreme weather poses an increasing threat to that peace. “It’s been so weird the last few years,” Ms. Reininger said. “The weather just — it’ll come at you.”
In recent years the area has been hit by torrential rains and hurricane-force winds. Tornadoes have spun through with disconcerting frequency; in December, two people died after one touched down in Keithville. And the danger is expected to grow as climate change supercharges storms, making hurricanes more intense and heavy downpours more frequent. Droughts, floods, wildfires and heat waves are all increasing threats.
So Chimp Haven is now running extreme-weather practice drills to teach the chimps to take shelter inside, quickly, when employees sound the alarm. Being able to recall the chimps on command will help the sanctuary to secure the chimps inside before a storm hits, keeping them safe — and keeping them from escaping, if new…
2023-08-08 00:34:38
Source from www.nytimes.com