[Mb-civic] FW: Elephants Help Save Lives At Tsunami

[Michael Butler]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Gerald Gerald <dekuyper at sbcglobal.net>
Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2005 09:42:16 -0800 (PST)
To: Gerald Cooper <dekuyper at sbcglobal.net>
Subject: Elephants  Help Save Lives At Tsunami

Elephants  Help Save Lives At Tsunami

Michael  Worldwide Events ? Jan 16, 2005


Subject:  Amazing Story


>From  the unbelievable chaos of the Tsunami disaster
comes an incredible tale from  Jim France of the
Pavilion Hotel Group in Bangkok  .? At a resort on
Phuket, one of the most popular attractions is (was)
elephant rides.? As  many as eight people on one
elephant, first into the surrounding forest, then
down to the beach, to lunch at a fresh water lagoon,
then back to the hotel.  The elephants (nine) were
kept chained to in-ground posts, not because they
needed to be, but because it made the mothers feel
better because their  children seemed safe from a
tromping when feeding the beasts.

About twenty minutes before the first wave hit, the
elephants became extremely  agitated and unruly.? Four
had just returned from a trip and their  handler's had
not yet chained them.? They helped the other five tear
free  from their chains.? They all then climbed a hill
and started bellowing.  Many people followed them up
the hill.?? Then the waves hit.???  After the waves
subsided, the elephants charged down from the hill,
and  started picking
up children with their trunks and running them back up
the hill; when all the  children were taken care of,
they started helping the adults.

They  rescued forty- two people.? Then, they returned
to the beach and carried  up four dead bodies, one of
a child.

Not until the task was done would they allow their
handler's to mount them.

Then  with handlers atop, they began moving wreckage.


?

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