Flood waters in the Cleveland Metroparks’ Brookside Reservation on Tuesday, February 7, 2017. (James Ewinger, The Plain Dealer)James Ewinger, The Plain Dealer
CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo is open, after a precautionary closing Tuesday because of nearby flooding.
Rapidly rising waters from Big Creek accumulated in the park system’s Brookside Reservation then, but never posed a threat to the thousands of resident animals in the world-class zoo.
Last major flooding occurred in 2014, but that did not force closure of the zoo. It was closed by rising water the last time in 2011.
Jenn Grieser, Cleveland Metroparks’ senior natural resources manager, said Tuesday said snow melt and storm runoff led to the flooding.
Big Creek is a 12-mile tributary of the Cuyahoga River that courses through seven Cuyahoga County communities.
Big Creek flooding
Brookside and the adjacent zoo are at the bottom of the Big Creek watershed, which means they receive runoff from the 175,000 people who live upstream in the watershed.
The park system and the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District view flooding as a manageable problem.
Grieser said the 30-square-mile area sends a lot of storm runoff down stream because there is a lot of impermeable land in the area that does not absorb the storm water.
The sewer district subsidized the Watershed Stewardship Center in the Metroparks’ West Creek Reservation to demonstrate various strategies for curbing storm-water run off.
These include rain barrels and retention basins.
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