Elephant Kills Pittsburgh Woman in Africa (while she was visiting Peace Corps daughter)

Pittsburgh Post Gazette ^ | Dec. 9 2003 | Mackenzie Carpenter

[mountaineer]

All her life, Heather Uber loved adventure and the outdoors, so when her older daughter joined the Peace Corps and moved to the West African nation of Cameroon in September 2002, Uber eagerly made plans to travel there.

But that visit ended tragically Thursday morning when Uber, a 55-year old mother of four, was killed by a rampaging elephant while visiting a wildlife park with her husband and daughter.

Uber, of Point Breeze, suffered internal injuries when she was knocked down by the elephant, which suddenly charged at the group from a distance of about 40 feet, said Ned Uber.

"Everything happened so fast," said Uber, who, along with his daughter, Holly, 23, was able to dodge behind a tree. But his wife and another member of the party were knocked to the ground. "Heather ended up getting bumped by the elephant's tusk in the lower left abdomen. We all tried to run around a tree, but they're really fast compared to people."

It took nearly an hour to get Heather Uber out of the park, and then, another two hours by car over nearly 100 miles of bumpy roads to the nearest hospital in the city of Garoua. Uber, who had lost consciousness during the car ride, died only a few minutes after arriving at the hospital.

"At some point, she thought she wasn't going to make it, so she started telling us to make sure we told [our other children] she loved them," her husband said. "And she told us not to blame ourselves for making the trip. And she said a lot of other good things."

[Stentor]

I've always wanted a pair of elephant boots.

[prisoner6]

What is it about Pittsburgh women and Elephants? Here's a picture of WPTT/WJAS traffic reporter Carol Finelli in Phuk Et Thailand. I wish I could find the picture of her with the truck wrapped around her while she strokes it lovingly. Barf ALERT!

And then remember the story a few months ago when a woman attendant at the Pittsburgh zoo was trampled by an elephant?

Coninky dink?

FWIW I feel sorry for the woman from Pt Breeze and her family, however as others have noted...if ya go goofin' wit da bees, expect to get stung.

prisoner6

[prisoner6]

Another pic of Carol Finelli doing her...ummm...thang.

prisoner6

[cherry]

we had a seemingly accomplished and nice young lady travel with her family to Zimbabwe (sp?) for vacation...they must have had money because I'm sure it cost a bundle...

well, the worse thing happened....she was killed right in front of her family by an alligator.....very sad....

but the moral of the story is you do not take wildlife lightly.....these so-called adventure trips are not your walk in the park, even though THAT can be an adventure sometimes....

just because you have money, or think you know what you're doing does not make it anymore safe for you.....accidents happen....

[Thinkin' Gal]

I'm sorry this woman was killed, but anyone who would get 40 feet from a wild elephant is just being reckless and foolish

I think people watch nature shows on PBS and Discovery, and think that the wildlife are all peace and love and will simply ignore human observers. Those zoom shots make it look like the camera crews are 15 feet or less from the action.

While this story is sad, I'll admit that the first thing that came to mind here, was that there was a maroon in Camaroon. :-/

[Kay Ludlow]

For some reason (maybe because it's 4:30 am), your elephant picture reminds me of a story my husband has.

His mother had some neighbors, aging hippies without a lot of money. They mentioned they were going to heat their house with a wood burner in the winter, so my MIL mentioned it to my husband. We have some wooded acreage, and he had cut down a number of trees and was looking for help to clean it up.

He takes Mr Hippie up to the woods with him (each have their own chainsaws), and hubby starts cutting wood. He notices Mr Hippie having trouble starting the chainsaw, so he goes over and offers to help get it going. He got it started, but when he pointed out a dead tree that would be great for firewood, Mr Hippie says "But look at those holes, those are animal homes" (looking at woodpecker holes). Not an auspicious start.

My husband goes back to work and gets his pickup truck filled, and checks on Mr Hippie again, who has 3 pieces of wood in the back of his truck. They start talking, and my husband tells him about wanting to clear of the trees and the brush to have some pasture land, since he'd like to raise some animals, like goats.

Mr Hippie says "Have you ever looked in a goats eyes? They don't care about you"!!!

Look back at the picture of the elephant, and think about Mr Hippies words... He thinks goats don't care? I don't think that elephant cares, and he can do a lot more damage!

So much for my early morning story. Mr Hippie left without taking any more wood; burning "animal homes" must've been more sacrilege than he could muster.

[mountaineer]

I think people watch nature shows on PBS and Discovery, and think that the wildlife are all peace and love and will simply ignore human observers. Those zoom shots make it look like the camera crews are 15 feet or less from the action.

I think you're right. The nature documentaries also invent little stories about the animals, their interaction with other animals, their "families," and then they give them cute names to add some drama, and it's no wonder the viewers might think an elephant is just a big gentle, harmless creature.

[Major_Risktaker]

Mr Hippie says "Have you ever looked in a goats eyes? They don't care about you"!!!

Look back at the picture of the elephant, and think about Mr Hippies words... He thinks goats don't care? I don't think that elephant cares, and he can do a lot more damage!

Nice story about Mr. Hippie...He is kinda right about those eyes.

Have you ever looked in a human eyes?
They don't care about you either, but how
can you tell when one will attack?

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov

Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili

" Communism has been human kinds greatest social
engineering experiment. It failed utterly and in doing
so it killed about 110,000,000 men, women, and
children, not to mention the near 30,000,000 of its
subjects that died in its often aggressive wars
and the rebellions it provoked."

The Brahmin inventor of Totalitarianism and Communism

Karl Marx

If it wasn't for the idiots above the world
may never have seen the idiots below.

Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler

I wish Mr. Hippie's goats were all us humans had to worry about. Welcome to plant Earth and enjoy the good times because you never know who the next 5 idiots are going be.

sorry had a bad dream last night...

[smokeyb]

Who cares you sicko?

Well I am sure she wouldn't be attacked by a Donkey ! Lighten up. It's sad but it also shows the stupidity of the feely leftist enviornmental nuts. I am more saddened by the death of our soldiers that are protecting us than by someone who does something stupid for themselves.

[zimdog]

Unless you read a different article or know these people personally (and your comments show that you don't), I don't see how these people are "feely leftist environemntal nuts." They went to see some elephants in Cameroon and it went horribly wrong. Pray for this family.

[zimdog]

This post is really off topic and illogical.

Saying "if inot for Marx, Hitler would have never been possible" is a bit like saying "if not for the Crusades, al-Qaida would have never been possible"

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

Well, I am more saddened when an American soldier dies too, but that doesn't mean I don't feel for someone else who dies. Especially someone who is simply visiting their daughter and trying to see Africa.

[smokeyb]

Unless you are from Pittsburgh (which I am) and know where they live (Point Breeze-solid 'feely leftist environmental nut area')and obviously you don't realized who makes up a majority of the Peace Corps, I can see why you can't understand the dangerous nature of what they did. They didn't just go to a zoo. And these are not domesticated animals. I guarantee that family will advise people never to do what they did.

[zimdog]

are you saying that their political views are what made it a dangerous trip? would it have been safer if they had been thinking kiplingesque thoughts of safari?

well, if they had brought an elephant gun, maybe :)

[zimdog]

Phuk Et?

Is this a joke?

[smokeyb]

That is a dangerous trip for anyone. Their political views tend to make them ignorant to the dangers of these animals. They want to save them from man then can't understand why the animals attack man to defend themselves.

[zimdog]

I think you're reading too much into this tragedy.

Any tour company worth it's license will warn people of the dangers of these animals and if not, the daughter in the Peace Corps had certainly had enough experience with the local wildlife to understand the danger of something like an elephant.

I'd say that wildlife shows contributed to this in some way. You see animal shots on the discovery channel, but you never see the comically huge telephoto lenses used to get those shots.

[prisoner6]

Nope...it's a real place, except I think it's spelled Phu Ket or Phukett. Finelli claims it's pronounced Foo-Kay, but you and I know better.

prisoner6

[Badray]

So that's what Carol Finelli looks like. I kept hearing that she was cute. (I know, I'm the pot and I'm talking about the kettle.)

[xm177e2]

I'm sure you've never done anything dumb before

If I do something dumb, and it catches up with me, I fully expect you to laugh at me.