A burst pipe at Serengeti Springs at the Hattiesburg Zoo recently caused the temporary closure of the water park, but officials were able to find a fix for the problem and get the park back up and running within a couple of hours.
Rick Taylor, executive director of the Hattiesburg Convention Commission – which runs the park – said the pipe burst overnight/early morning on July 18, disrupting water flow to the swim-up bar. However, crews capped the leak and had the park open around noon that day.
“We were able to come back up, but we’re going to have to get back in there probably by next weekend … and dig up some grass to get down and repair the pipe,” Taylor said. “So they found (the leak) early (that) morning, and we appreciate our friends at Jordan Brothers Plumbing, because they came out and got us really squared away.”
The cause of the leak is thought to be a cracked PVC pipe.
“There was a thought that when another pipe was put in, it may have been too close to that pipe,” Taylor said. “The great thing for us was that it was not anything related to the lazy river or to the Fusion Fortress; it was basically a water feeder line for fresh water to go to the sinks at the swim-up bar.
“But what we were able to do it put a cutoff valve in, so now – not that we wanted this improvement – but now if we want to shut of water to the swim-up bar for its operations, it won’t affect anything else and we can keep everything else running.”
Park officials immediately began working on getting refunds to any guests who had tickets and were not able to come because of the closure. That measure was expected to be completed by the end of business on the day of the leak.
“We put it back out (to the public) that you could come (after the leak was fixed that day as well),” Taylor said. “We went ahead and closed the cabanas, just because at the time this was going on, we did not know how long this might take.
“So we refunded everyone who had cabanas (that day).”
Taylor said for the most part, guests who were affected by the closure were understanding, although some were understandable disappointed.
“We have (the same thing) when we run out of tickets,” he said. “We have people that have come from a (long distance) and didn’t check social media, didn’t check the website, and they get frustrated.
“But we did offer some folks (free) admission to the zoo, because at that time – I’d say it was about 10:30 (that morning) – we realized we might be able to get this thing fixed much faster than we expected. So we told some folks to go over to the zoo, enjoy it on us, and come back about noon, and we even radioed the zoo to tell (the guests) to come on over because the park’s open now.”
The $10.5 million water park is located on the former site of Cameron Field, which was relocated to Jaycee Park to make room for the new attraction.
The park consists of two phases of construction. Work on Phase I, which began last summer and is now complete, includes a Fusion Fortress Water Play Structure, an entry building with a gift shop and showers, a 150,000-gallon lazy river, a swim-up pool and bar, group pavilions, cabanas, food trucks, a staff office building, and loungers and Adrirondack chairs.
The Fusion Fortress consists of nine slides of varying heights, along with multiple water play areas and two bucket dump stations.
Underneath the Fusion Fortress is a Life Floor, which provides a cushioned floor that is anti-microbial and holds no standing water.
Work on Phase II of the water park will begin anywhere from two to four years from now. That phase will consist of a tower of four water slides.
The $10.5 million price tag for Serengeti Springs is funded by the Hattiesburg Convention Commission’s earned revenues, along with the existing 2-percent restaurant tax at Hattiesburg restaurants. The water park is designed to be self-sufficient and profitable.
