Final roar ... Hurricane Ike survivors took refuge with a lion in a church as the storm raged around them.
Lion being transported from zoo as waters rise
Detour to church where driver and lionhole up with others
Everyone survives the night
MANY years from now, a small group of Hurricane Ike survivors will probably still be telling the story of how, on the night the storm flattened their homes, they took refuge in a church - with a lion.
The full-grown lion was from a local zoo. The owner was trying to drive to safety with the animal when he saw cars and trucks stranded in the rising floodwaters. He knew he and the lion were in trouble.
He headed for the First Baptist Church at Crystal Beach, on Bolivar Peninsula, adjacent to Galveston, and was met by a group of residents who helped the lion wade inside. They locked it in a sanctuary as the storm raged.
The water crept up to their waists, and wooden planks came floating through broken windows. But the lion was as calm as a kitten.
When daylight came, everyone was still alive.
"They worked pretty well together, actually," said the lion`s owner, Michael Ray Kujawa.
"When you have to swim, the lion doesn`t care about eating nobody."
Amid the destruction in places like Bolivar Peninsula and Galveston, where rows houses were scoured from the landscape, seemingly impossible tales of survival have begun to emerge.
Whether through faith or fate, luck or resourcefulness, dozens of people who stayed behind made it out alive, and have harrowing stories to prove it.
As of Tuesday, the official death toll from Ike stood at 48. Only 17 were in Texas - and many of those were people killed by fires or generator fumes after the storm had passed. However, authorities held out the possibility that some victims were washed out to sea.
Obviously you people didn't realise that "whatajoke" was making a low class form of satire, or sarcasm, often called a PUN.Say it out loud."You're lyin'!".Sounds like "lion", doesn't it?
Posted by: David of Central Coast 2:59pm today
Putting asaide the fact that it was during a major disaster, I would have loved to be in the same room as this lion.Sure, I'd be frightened as all hell, but once my nerves settled, I would be asking the owner/trainer if I could go near it.I mean, seriously, how often do you get the chance to go near a lion which seems to be domesticated (to an extent)?That being said, my heart goes out to those who have lost so much to the hurricane.Having grown up in country Victoria, I can't even imagine what it would be like ...
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