Chance The Snapper Moved To Safe Location As Dorian Bears Down On Florida
CHICAGO (CBS) -- As Hurricane Dorian threatens Florida, Chance the Snapper is moving to a safe location.
The St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park posted a picture of the famous alligator being moved into a hurricane-safe building.
Hugs for Chance the Chicago Alligator! Our Reptile Keepers have him secured in our hurricane safe building. Safe & sound❤️#retweet with any questions.@wjxt4 @FCN2go @AlligatorRobb@nbcchicago @ABC7Chicago @cbschicago #HurricaneDorian #HurricaneDorian2019 #hurricanequestions pic.twitter.com/Gjq5xeNVGr
— StAug Alligator Farm (@StAugGatorFarm) September 1, 2019
Workers at the park are busy moving all their reptiles, birds, and mammals into a shelter ahead of the storm.
Chance the Snapper became the most famous reptile – and perhaps the most famous vertebrate – in Chicago in July. He was first seen in the Humboldt Park lagoon back on July 9.
After the alligator spent a week of eluding teams from the Department of Animal Care and Control, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, and volunteer herpetologist "Alligator Bob," the city called in Frank Robb -- better known as Alligator Robb – to execute the job.
Early on the morning of Tuesday, July 16, Robb caught the gator using a fishing pole with a grappling hook on the end of the line.
Chance the Snapper was taken to a permanent home at the St. Augustine park afterward.
As of Monday night, Hurricane Dorian was a Category 4 storm – down from a Category 5 over the weekend. As of 8 p.m. local time, the storm was still pounding the Bahamas, and was 105 miles east of West Palm Beach.
The storm was stationary with maximum sustained winds of 145 mph. But a slow westward to west-northwestward motion was expected to resume overnight and continue into Tuesday.
Dorian is forecast to move dangerously close to the Florida east coast late Tuesday through Wednesday evening and then move dangerously close to the Georgia and South Carolina coasts on Wednesday night and Thursday, WFOR-TV, CBS 4 in Miami reported.
As CBS 2's Dana Kozlov reported, authorities estimated at least 13,000 homes in the Bahamas were damaged or destroyed as of Monday. Streets were flooded and some business were tattered.
In Cocoa Beach, Florida and other eastern parts of the state, people spent much of the day boarding up buildings, storefronts, and homes – should the slow-moving Dorian hit the Atlantic coast.
Shelters were set up and filling up in places like Jacksonville, Florida, as various areas were under evacuation orders. The governor of South Carolina also advised that people in eight counties move inland right away.
The Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach airports stopped all flights Monday, and the airport in Orlando was expected to do the same.