What with all the stories of people holing up in churches trying to ride out the storm, some followups. While KHOU has reported some people walking out or getting rescued, here’s an unusual one - there’s an audio clip at the link:
http://www.khou.com/topstories/stories/khou080915_tj_ike_shelter_lion_crystal_beach.7a72aecc.html
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Five shelter from Ike in church with a lion
07:21 AM CDT on Monday, September 15, 2008
By TJ Aulds / KHOU.com
CRYSTAL BEACH, Texas—As if holing up in a church as Hurricane Ike was doing its worst to the Bolivar Peninsula wasn’t bad enough, Robert Reed had something else to contend with: a 500-pound African lion.
When Ike’s storm surge made the peninsula’s only main road impassable, Reed assisted in getting other residents onto helicopters so they could be airlifted to safety. Reed figured the Coast Guard would be returning to pick him up, but as the weather deteriorated, it became too dangerous for further rescue efforts.
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Sept. 15, 2008
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That left Reed and five others stranded in the Seaside Lumber Store on Highway 87 in Crystal Beach. With the water rising and Ike only hours away from landfall, Reed and the band of survivors waded through waist deep water to the Baptist church next door.
The church was built at a higher elevation.
As the storm raged, Reed—along with his friends, Larry and Crystal White—were praying the church would be just high enough to keep them from drowning in the massive storm surge.
If they could keep their heads above water, then all they would have to worry about were the hours of pounding rain and winds – and getting cozy with the king of the jungle.
“This guy had his cat in a cage in the back of his truck and he wouldn’t leave it,” said Reed.
As the storm got worse, the big cat’s owner opened the cage and brought his lion inside.
“It was no big deal; he is real good with big cats. Been raising them a long time,” said Reed.
Lion or not, Reed’s friends grew worried Friday night when they didn’t hear from him.
Rev. Robin Huber, the pastor of the Full Gospel Lighthouse Church on Bolivar, said she talked to Reed at about 4 p.m. on Friday as he waited to be airlifted off the peninsula. That was about the time tropical storm-force winds were making their way ashore, and the Coast Guard decided it was too dangerous to fly.
Two hours later, Huber got another call from Reed. His cell phone signal was weak at best, but she managed to get the message.
“He didn’t think they were coming for him, it had been two hours,” said Huber, who called KHOU desperate for help to rescue her friend.
Repeated attempts to reach Reed failed, and Huber started to pray.
“The battery on my phone fell out into the water and it just wouldn’t stay powered,” said Reed.
KHOU.com sent Reed a text message, and eventually he was able to get a call through.
It was less than ideal – we could only hear every sixth word he said.
That’s when someone in the church with Reed had an idea: They sent a text-to-land line message to KHOU.com.
Text-to-land line messages are delivered by a computerized voice, based on the text typed into the user’s phone.
The cryptic message to KHOU.com was as follows: “We are in Crystal Beach. Five men and one (inaudible) and an African lion at the Baptist church.”
We didn’t believe the part about African lion could be real.
But it was. Reed called back Saturday after he and his friends were finally airlifted out of Crystal Beach and taken to a shelter.
He confirmed his miraculous survival story.
While Reed and the Whites were willing to get off the peninsula, the lion’s owner wouldn’t leave without his big cat.
“We would have stayed too if we had enough food,” said Reed.
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I can only imagine what the poor lion was thinking. Hurricanes don’t normally come visit the African veldt.
“For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.” Ecclesiastes 3:19
Can you imagine....the rescue helicoper comes in and a man says “I’m not leaving without my cat” and was told to “grab your cat and let’s go” :’)
Question: Where do a man and his lion can stay during a hurricane?
Answer: Anywhere they desire
Ping to 2597.
Ping to 2597.
This is a great quote. I am putting that on my page...thx.