Nairobi, 11 March 2010
Flood Update by Lucy King
“I am up in the research center now in Samburu and helping with the clean up effort.
We have quite a large team here now who have done well to try to salvage what they
can from the bushes and have even discovered a couple of our tents wrapped around
trees downstream! We are washing them and seeing if they are re-usable but all our
tents and living area has been destroyed and will need to be re-built on higher
ground. The mud and sand that has deposited itself in our camp is extraordinary, its
changed the look of our camp permanently and there are massive tree trunks lodged in
the ground that were swept in from upstream. Yesterday a man was swept into our camp
from the river and we thought he was dead but our staff pulled him out and pressed
the water out of his chest and discovered he was alive! An incredible experience and
he came round quite quickly. It turned out that he was looting a lodge upstream from
us and got chased by the guards, jumped in the river and got swept away! He rested
for an hour, rehydrated himself and then dashed off again and we haven’t seen him
since! We have also had dead camels swept into our camp and a whole tree floated
downstream with a troop of live baboons having a ride in the branches, not sure if
they have drowned or if they managed to leap off when it neared shore but nothing is
surprising us now!
We have set up a “refugee camp” for our staff on the hill behind camp and we now
think this will be a good place to re-build, perhaps with platforms and decking to
set up our tents above the flood water line. There is a great view from there and
our study elephants come around the hill in the evening so we will feel very at home
in the new site. For now we have employed 20 local workers from the nearby community
to help us clear up and clear debris and so the central camp area (kitchen, research
center etc) is starting to take shape again. Despite the huge work ahead of us, we
are in good spirits and several kind donors have donated goats for us to eat some
meat with our rice which is also helping morale! This is helping because our staff
have lost all their personal possessions, documents, ID’s, clothes etc which is
tough to deal with as well as their personal research notebooks and sketches which
have been waterlogged. We are happy that some of our friends around the world have
started to donate to our cause on our website:
http://www.justgiving.com/ste-research-camp-floods and www.savetheelephants.org.
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Natalia Mroz: +254 (0)718 200952