Hello, it’s Zeituna again! I also experienced the floods. It happened on the 4th of march. We were alerted before the floods reached our camp by our sister camp; Elephant Watch Safaris. Everyone in camp woke up early and we started removing our belongings from our tents and put them outside.The river started flowing towards our tents. The water started coming in high speed and we had to run to the office and rescue the important documents and equipments like the satellite collars and some files. All in all we had to leave the area because the water was getting higher, all the way to our knees! The force of the water was quite powerful we had to hold hands when crossing the other side to the hill bordering the office. We sat on the hill for four hours waiting for the water to reduce. You could hear tents roofs collapsing and also huge trees falling down. When the water reduced in volume we went back to camp .It was a trauma seeing all buildings demolished and the mud was knee high you could hardly move. Our well was not spared either, the floods demolished it spreading its effect all the way to the kitchen. Washing it away.
The bridge linking the reserve to airstrip was also demolished and we didn’t have another route to use. Our only hope was our director Iain who did his best and flew his plane to another small airstrip and rescue us with food and water. Through teamwork we did a lot in camp. We were busy removing the mud from the building and rescuing important documents and electronics and drying them. We had to sleep in small tents for the time being.
The floods were so bad we had to rescue one of the locals who drowned in the river but had clung on the roots for safety. The poor fellow was unconscious when we rescued him. We gave him hot tea and covered him with a blanket until the following day. He got well the next day and was taken home.