Deluge threatens Chiang Mai elephant park

Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai has been severely flooded, with rescuers and staff struggling to save jumbos and other animals as all roads to the site have been cut off by floodwater and landslides.
The park in Mae Taeng district posted an urgent message on its Facebook page on Friday saying the flooding had worsened and plunged it into a critical stage. Everything at the centre is cut off from the outside world, from electricity to telephone signals.
“We urgently need volunteers and animal cages as we must move the animals to the mountains due to the roads being completely cut off in both directions,” one of the messages said.
Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said on Friday afternoon that 117 of the 126 elephants in the park had been saved but nine more needed help.
“An operation is under way,” he told reporters.
One village that pigs and buffaloes had been moved to earlier was now completely flooded, said conservationist Saengduan Chailert, the founder of the park.
“We don’t know how many elephants will survive, we are going back to help them,” she said.
Heavy runoff and rapid overflow from the Taeng River, which passes through the park, began on Thursday, creating what staff called “the worst ever” deluge.
The Taeng is a tributary of the overflowing Ping River.
Staff and volunteers have been trying to move all animals — big and small — to higher ground since Thursday. Some of their colleagues, including Ms Saengduean, were stranded on a road as they could not reach the park because of a landslide. Volunteers with motorised dinghies arrived to bring her to the park.
Some animals, including elephants, cows and water buffalo were being carried away in the current from the park on Friday afternoon, and anybody who spotted them was being asked to contact staff.
A staff member told the Bangkok Post that the park has 126 elephants and that two were known to be trapped in the current. Some have been saved by mahouts by moving them to high ground, she added.
Elephant Nature Park is famous for the work it does to rescue and rehabilitate elephants. It is also a sanctuary for other animals such as cats, pigs, water buffalo and birds.
Ms Saengduean said in a Facebook video on Friday that floodwater in some parts of the park could be as deep as five metres and reaching the roofs of buildings.
“I don’t know how many elephants can be saved,” she said while holding back tears. “We cannot contact those in the valley.”
Natural Resources and Environment Minister Chalermchai Sri-on on Friday instructed officials to urgently mobilise workers and rescuers in Chiang Mai to help rescue the animals. The Provincial Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department has also supplied them with boats.

In a video taken on Friday morning and posted by Elephant Nature Park founder Saengduean Chailert on her Facebook page, elephants are seen fleeing the rising water.