--- title: "Thirty flamingos rode out Hurricane Isaias in a Florida zoo restroom" url: https://badiyaa.com/flamingos-restroom-zooworld-hurricane-isaias/ published: 2026-10-13T08:25:00+01:00 modified: 2026-10-13T08:25:00+01:00 section: Pets & Animals publisher: Badiyaa --- # Thirty flamingos rode out Hurricane Isaias in a Florida zoo restroom ZooWorld in Panama City Beach moved its flock, including one named Mr Sparklepants, indoors as the Category 3 storm hit the Panhandle. Zoo Miami did the same in 1992. Thirty flamingos, among them a bird the keepers call Mr Sparklepants, spent Hurricane Isaias packed into a public restroom at ZooWorld in Panama City Beach, Florida. Images of the flock standing shoulder to shoulder between the tiled walls spread widely over the weekend of 10 and 11 October 2026, as the storm moved inland across the Florida Panhandle. Isaias was the first hurricane of the 2026 Atlantic season, and it formed later in the year than any season’s first hurricane on record. The National Hurricane Center said it made landfall as a Category 3 storm near Destin on the night of Friday 9 October. Panama City Beach sits further east along the same coast, in Bay County. The storm weakened to a post-tropical cyclone after it moved inland. ## Why a restroom It looks like a joke. It is a sound piece of animal management. A flamingo outdoors in hurricane-force wind is in real danger. The birds are tall and light, with long legs and necks that are easily injured, and flying debris is a bigger threat than the rain. Moving a flock into a building takes care of that, but the building has to suit them. A public restroom at a small zoo is often the best option on site: usually concrete block, with few or no windows, a solid roof, drains in the floor and surfaces that can be hosed down afterwards. Thirty flamingos produce a lot of mess over a long night. Flamingos also cope with confinement better as a group than alone. They are colonial birds that feed and rest in tight flocks, so keeping them together in one space is calmer for them than splitting them between pens. The crowded look of the photographs is closer to how they normally stand than it appears. ## A Florida tradition, of sorts ZooWorld’s keepers were following a well-worn path. The best-known version dates from Hurricane Andrew in August 1992, when staff at what is now Zoo Miami herded their flamingos into a restroom after the storm wrecked their habitat. The photograph of those birds became one of the defining images of Andrew. In September 2022, during Hurricane Ian, a photo of flamingos sheltering in a Florida park bathroom went viral in much the same way. Each time, the image gets shared as a curiosity. Each time, it shows the same thing: someone had a hurricane plan that listed every animal and where it would go. ## If you keep birds or other animals The lesson scales down. Keepers of backyard poultry, aviary birds or smallholding animals in hurricane country can take the zoo’s approach: - Pick the sturdiest windowless room or outbuilding before the season starts, not on the day of the warning. - Check it has drainage or can be lined, and that animals cannot reach cables or chemicals. - Keep carriers, bedding, food and at least several days of water ready. - Move animals early, while it is still calm enough to handle them without injury. The Atlantic hurricane season officially runs until 30 November, so the rest of the 2026 season still has seven weeks to go. ## Further reading - [Wikipedia: 2026 Atlantic hurricane season](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Atlantic_hurricane_season) - [Wikipedia: American flamingo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_flamingo) *Image: cliff1066, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons* *This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by our Editorial Desk. [How we work](/editorial-policy/).*