i find it amazing with the technology of today that we are unable to find & aid people almost one month after the epic disaster.
NIAS, Indonesia (ENI) - Almost a month after tidal waves engulfed shorelines across continents, people are still stranded in parts of Indonesia, and emergency helpers are battling to reach areas where bridges and roads were swept away and helicopters cannot land.
International media attention has focused on flattened cities like Banda Aceh and Meulaboh on Sumatra island, which have received an outpouring of assistance. But on the west coast of Indonesia, people are still stranded, despite efforts to reach them.
The effect has been equally catastrophic on communities in such remote areas as Sirombu on Nias island, a Christian pocket isolated from Indonesia in north Sumatra. Here, the tsunami killed 119 people and displaced more than 4,000. It swept away five schools, five churches, two mosques, two health centers and 111 bridges, and more than 400 homes were destroyed.
Ama Aspirasi Gulo sat amid the ruins of what was once his home in Sisarahili. The area is accessible only by foot or motorbike, three kilometers from Sirombu.
"It was a peaceful life," recounted the 40-year-old father of four, explaining how all the families had their own economic resources through coconut farming and selling. "We enjoyed life, even if we were far away from the city," he said, showing the flattened homes of his neighbors who died.
He explained how the earthquake shook their homes, but no one fled as they did not anticipate flooding. Then the waves rose and enveloped the whole village.
"People were crying and shouting to God to come and help them. But God didn't come - only more water," lamented Ama. He knows 68 people who died, but his family escaped by climbing coconut trees.
Ama said he plans to rebuild his life away from the sea, away from where his forefathers had lived for generations. "I have finished with this place," he said, motioning to the ghost village that was his community.
Hundreds of thousands of people now have radically changed lives. The U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization estimates that 800 fishing canoes were destroyed on Nias. Most belonged to poor fishing and farming communities. Local people say their lives might as well have ended as they have lost everything.
Sirombu and Mandrehe are areas not known in many places and few outsiders visit. Aid workers say lives are a cycle of poverty and neglect in which women die in childbirth, most people are illiterate, and where malaria and other diseases kil l.
Surf Aid International, the only international medical organization operating on Nias and the Mentawai islands, said the area faces a serious risk of epidemics. Malaria is already prevalent, affecting 25 percent to 30 percent of the population.
"We need to get these whole communities under nets," said Dave Jenkins, Surf Aid's medical director. He noted that malaria weakens the population through chest infections and malnutrition as well as directly killing people. Surf Aid is distributing mosquito nets, vaccinating against measles and supplying micro-nutrients and vitamin A.
NOTE: Photographs are available at umns.umc.org
By Orla Clinton