ISLAND AID Isolated Community Support

The Blog is way behind because I've had no time to write events up. Here is a quick overview.

I am consular warden for the Aus Embassy and Jane UK warden so we were  
in touch with both embassies as soon as our phones came back on. We helped them to find missing Aussies and Brits and that phase is over with just a few people not yet accounted for and it looks like no injuries or deaths.

The morning after the quake the Mayor and I climbed up into the wreck of the Ambacang Hotel to try to find a way to the people we could hear crying for help. It was a shocking sight. Bodies were pinned under huge slabs. We could hear cries but there was no way to get past the jumble of debris. Aftershocks were shaking things loose and they were falling round us. It was hopeless.

The Mayor asked Jane and I to focus on contacting global media. He said...  
"please tell the world we need help".

We sent out emails and calling friends to help get the word out. Thanks especially to Justine Boow in West Australia and Mick Sheehy in Jakarta. The media started flying in that night. We hosted the "60 Minutes" team and were interviewed by about 40 journalists from around the world in the first couple of days.

We worked with the Australian embassy team to try to understand the scale of the disaster. At the time we were thinking about Padang city and what was around us. There was no news from the towns and villages.

The rescue and aid response has been incredible.  Over 160 NGOs flew to Padang to help. The US sent a ship, Australia sent a ship and 17 SAR teams arrived within days.

We are hosting 40 ADF Army engineers at our office and we have been  
hosting the Herc pilots for the RAF at our villa. HMAS Kanimbla has arrived with engineers, tents and helicopters to support rebuilding and repairing infrastructure. 

Our hope is that the Aussies will be here for a while...... the clean up job ahead is vast in scale. From the Pariaman coast to Lake Maninjau 80% of houses are down or beyond repair. Total homes destroyed is up to 135,000 and climbing. 80% of multistory buildings are not repairable and about half have collapses or partly collapsed.

The ADF engineers have installed a 400 ton/day water maker to supply  
drinking/washing water to the city. This is huge! PAM will take months to restore and people are bathing in dirty rivers. Power is back on in many areas so those with wells are ok. Many people dont have wells because PAM in Padang was pretty good so people count on it in the city area. Now the engineers are working on irrigation and bridges up in the mountains.

The US turned the old military airfield into a new logistics hub greatly reducing congestion at the international  airport. Great boost for the population to see all the big heavy lift helicopters flying around. Cant tell you how important this was for trauma recovery.

The shelter and hygiene needs in the field are better understood now and the scale of the destruction is enormous.  Aid is coming in but it wont be enough. Many more tents are needed. Reconstruction will take many many years.

We are focused on trying to reach the villages cut off by landslides in the  
mountains. Many places only accessible by chopper. Met some of the pilots on the USS Denver and they did a great job.

Jane and I spent a night aboard the USS Denver at invitation of Rear Admiral Landolt.  They were ready to deploy a landing barge or heavy lift helos for a drop to Mentawai but they were called to move on. We will try again with the AFD. Not much has gone out to the islands and they are sleeping up on hill tops. A lot of houses burned or fell down but damage was moderate compared to the mainland.

We have 14 Bali doctors inbound and Troppodoc's Dr Derek Allen has a 5 person medical team + Jane working up in mountains. We have set up an Aid HQ (Posko) in Padang Alai near the massive land slides that buried many hundreds. We will never know the real death toll here. Maybe double the official numbers. Our staff are working as volunteers and friends from around the world are working with us.

Obor Berkat, Samaritans Purse and Mata Hari Supermarket have joined us and we are distributing "family packs" to Mata Air and Air Manis communities and we have run daily health clinics alternating between our Air Manis HQ and the mountains.

Caught one typhoid victim just in time and he spent two day in the US field hospital. He is weak but recovering. Yesterday Dr Derek operated on a woman to remover a tumor and the village is very happy that he is here for them. Tonight the medical team is with Jane up in Padang Alai setting up our clinic.

I'll post images later. Thanks to all who attended the fund-raiser in Sydney! It is will make a big difference to our ability to reach the worst hit communities. 

Here are some of the media links:

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/.../0,25197,26151218-601,00.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8284139.stm

http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/thousands-feared-dead-after-sumatra-quake-3042528

http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/news-188661-thousands-feared-dead-after-killer-indonesian-earthquake.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE58T39720090930

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1217020/Samoa-tsunami-Indonesia-earthquake-Bodies-beaches-thousands-buried-rubble-Padang.html

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2009/s2701864.htm

http://news.globaltv.com/world/Indonesia+quake+death+toll+thousands+minister/2049997/story.html

http://thejakartaglobe.com/home/indonesia-welcomes-quake-aid-as-search-for-survivors-continues/333002

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/the-day-the-ground-jumped-up-and-down-20091002-ggjb.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/01/indonesia-earthquake-tsunami-padang-sumatra