Calgary Zoo closed due to power failure

An overnight power failure forced the Calgary Zoo to stay closed Sunday.

ENMAX spokesperson Doris Kaufmann Woodcock says the outage was due to a cable fault.

The insulation that protects the cable degrades over time but there is a possibility it was damaged in the flood.

The heat may have also played a role in causing the cable to expand.

Just after 5 p.m. Sunday, all power was fully restored to the Calgary Zoo and normal zoo operations will
resume on Monday.

ENMAX crews spent most of the day replacing the section of damaged cable.

‘There is damage to the underground cable. The insulation protecting the cable degrades over time, there is a possibility that the flood damage may have had something to do with this,” Kaufmann Woodcock said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: 'There is damage to the underground cable. The insulation protecting the cable degrades over time, there is a possibility that the flood damage may have had something to do with this," Kaufmann Woodcock said.

The heat may also have played a role because of expansion.

The power was out to a majority of the zoo, which is why it took all day to restore it.

No other customers are affected

Zoo officials say all of its animals received extra care.

Trish Exton-Parder from the Calgary Zoo says there were some signs that they were having some power issues last night.

“So our folks were on it and we went into full gear early this morning to try to let all of our customers know. Obviously it’s a weekend and we expect pretty good crowd here. With the heat, probably not as large crowds as we would normally gets on the weekend but nevertheless we need to put our customers first.” Exton-Parder said.

Some animals, such as the fish and the penguins, live in special climate conditions. The systems controlling those are still working properly.

“Luckily all of our animal care team were on it immediately, ensuring that all of the backup power is in place so there is no concern to our animals here and they’re just continually making sure that isn’t going to be the case,” Exton-Parder said. “In our essential areas we do have backup power and in areas that don’t, we have access to what we need when that happens, so everything is in our crisis plans, so we don’t have to be concerned and caught off guard in that sense.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Luckily all of our animal care team were on it immediately, ensuring that all of the backup power is in place so there is no concern to our animals here and they're just continually making sure that isn't going to be the case," Exton-Parder said. "In our essential areas we do have backup power and in areas that don't, we have access to what we need when that happens, so everything is in our crisis plans, so we don't have to be concerned and caught off guard in that sense."

Also, with this extra heat the Zoo also ensures that all of their animals have extra water, extra shade. In any of the extreme temperatures that Calgary has, whether it’s -30 or +30, the Calgary Zoo says they ensure that the animals are comfortable and they watch for any signs of anything unusual.