✅ During Hurricane Andrew in 1992, animal caretakers at Zoo Miami sheltered dozens of flamingos in a bathroom. We spoke with the photographer. 👇
the storm had caused $26.5 billion in damages, making it the most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history. Total damages would later be surpassed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 at $81 billion.
Snopes spoke with Ron Magill, Zoo Miami goodwill ambassador and communications director, who confirmed the authenticity of the picture — he took it on Aug. 23, 1992. Magill said he believed there were a total of 38 flamingos in the Zoo Miami flock at the time, and they would have all been put in the restroom together.
“This was part of a hurricane protocol that required us to round up all of the flamingos in the front lake of the zoo and place them in the ladies public restroom, which was used as a bunker, whenever a hurricane warning was issued,” said Magill. “After catching the flamingos and putting the last ones into the bathroom for the evening, I was struck by how strange it looked to see the birds huddled together in the ladies bathroom so I took out a point-and-shoot camera and took a couple of frames. Little did I know at the time how destructive and historic that storm would be or how much exposure that image would get afterwards!”
Magill recounted the experience in a 2017 video published to YouTube by the electric company, Florida Power & Light. In the video, he noted that the last thing zookeepers do during a hurricane warning is move the flamingos from the lake because it is a “stressful procedure.” The image became a two-page spread in Newsweek and went on to become an
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