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Thousands stranded beyond hope (100,000 people on island near epicenter still unaccounted for)
Sydney Morning Herald ^ | December 29, 2004 | Lindsay Murdoch in Banda Aceh and Sean Nicholls

Posted on 12/28/2004 8:14:26 AM PST by dead

The survivors have blank stares and do not speak. We walk together among black and bloated bodies still lying in the streets of Banda Aceh three days after the 25 minutes of terror that struck on Boxing Day morning.

"We thought it was the end of the world," says Sofyan Halim, who lost 15 members of his family.

Banda Aceh's 40,000 people have suffered greatly over the years, caught in a bitter fight between the Indonesian military and rebels struggling for independence from Jakarta. But nothing like this; never before such death and utter devastation.

Nobody here is talking about recovery, just survival.

This is just a slice of the devastation wreaked across 11 nations by an earthquake and resulting tsunami. The rescue mission here is painfully slow, just as it is in most of the stricken areas.

Only a 16-hour boat ride away, close to the epicentre of the earthquake, is an island of 100,000 people - all of them unaccounted for and beyond the reach of Indonesia's limited resources.

"We just don't know about them," a government official, Djoko Sumaryono, says of Simeulue. "No contact makes us fearful. We're trying to send helicopters there."

An Australian trying to reach Simeulue yesterday with vital aid and a satellite phone also fears the worst. "There will be people there with nothing, no fuel, no food, no water, nothing at all. The whole place is washed away I'd say," Brian Williams says.

Among the ruins of what used to be Banda Aceh's thriving market, shocked men and boys pick through the rubble, ignoring dozens, perhaps hundreds, of rotting bodies.

When the stink becomes unbearable, they cover their faces and continue their search for anything that will keep their families alive. Food is desperately short, so much so that people stand for hours in the sun outside the few shops untouched by the devastation in the hope they will open and sell them food.

Looting and lawlessness are other problems plaguing the region, but there are by no means the worst. The head of Banda Aceh's military hospital, Taufiq Urahman, says there are grave fears of an outbreak of cholera and typhoid. "Banda Aceh is paralysed," he says. "This is a very grim situation."

Survivors say the city was shaken first by two earthquakes, five minutes apart. Three tsunamis came 25 minutes later.

"The water was as high as a coconut palm," says Sofyan Halim. "All the debris came with it. People were screaming. Some got away, many didn't. The water went 15 kilometres inland in some places. It was all over in 25 minutes. That's all. How can that be ... such devastation."

It is difficult to imagine how Banda Aceh can rebuild itself. Trees, uprooted and dumped kilometres away, litter the streets, as do the twisted shells of cars. Layers of stinking mud cover everything and several of the biggest shopping centres have collapsed. Even the symbol of Aceh, the Baiturrahman mosque, has been badly damaged.

One of the many ruins, the three-storey Doctor Zainal Abidin Hospital, tells a particularly grim tale. "Children in emergency wards were killed [when the water hit]," says a nurse, Citra Nurhayat. "Soldier patients suffering from malaria helped to evacuate other patients."

Families sit in shock in the street or in the grounds of mosques. Only the children seem to cry; the parents seem numb with disbelief.

A 34-year-old mother, Nurhayati, says she has only had bananas to feed her three-month-old baby since Sunday. "I need baby food as well ... no aid has come to us yet."

Scores of badly injured people lie in the corridors and on verandahs of the only operating hospital in Banda Aceh. Patients have no water to drink and have only dry packed noodles to eat.

Saripah, 60, who could not hang on to her six-year-old granddaughter in the tsunami, came to the hospital yesterday for medicine. She was turned away. Outside was a 16-year-old girl who lost an entire family. She had been told there was nowhere to treat her leg wound. Nurses say there are thousands like them.

Survivors and rescue workers bring the dead to Lambaro, a village a few kilometres outside the city, and lay them under plastic sheets near a roundabout in the hope that relatives will come and identify them.

But the threat of disease and Muslim tradition that the dead be buried within 24 hours have prompted mass burials.

About 1500 victims, many of them children, were buried after a funeral on Monday night. There are so many bodies - officials say the death toll in Banda Aceh alone may be as high as 10,000 - that an excavator is digging graves on a two-hectare plot of land near the village.

Indonesian officials fear that communities and islands off the west coast of Sumatra may have been even harder hit.

Shortages of food, water and medicines in Banda Aceh are already causing anger among the Acehnese. Indra Utama, a community leader in the city, says the military must provide more urgent aid. "Where is the military?" he asks. "They're just taking care of their families. There is no war in Aceh now, why don't they help pick up the bodies in the street?"

However, the Indonesian military has started flying medical crews and badly needed emergency supplies into the area in Hercules and any other available aircraft from Medan. It admits much more is needed. At an emergency aid centre at the Banda Aceh parliament only biscuits and drinking water had arrived yesterday afternoon.

Brian Williams, who has lived on Simeulue since 2002, yesterday flew into Medan from Sydney with his wife, Dewi.

He is desperate to contact the island, where he runs a surfing and fishing tour business, but communications are down.

He believes the main town, Sinabang, has been "wiped out".

Mr Williams plans to make the 16-hour trip to Simeulue on a boat laden with Australian aid. "I just want to make sure they're all right and get them some help."


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: sumatraquake; tsunami
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To: dead

Falling deeper and deeper into shock. When the disease kicks in, I'll probably have a breakdown.


101 posted on 12/28/2004 1:05:41 PM PST by txhurl
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To: KoRn

I would never give money randomly to an organization that hadn't been reasonably vetted. I'm not an idiot. My whole involvement in this thread began when I asked other FReepers to RECOMMEND a charity that they find to be a good and reliable one. Then other people chimed in to say that such a thing does not exist. I disagree. I think at this point I'll do my own research.


102 posted on 12/28/2004 1:07:50 PM PST by cwiz24 (Hey Democrats---Now who's ya daddy?)
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To: cwiz24
cwiz24 said: "Could you possibly string together a sensical post? "

What part are you having trouble understanding?

Prior to the fall of the Soviet Union, their people found themselves standing in line hoping to be able to buy a loaf of bread. The cumulative effect of such experiences, coupled with video showing how well stocked American stores were, helped to hasten the fall of that evil empire.

What purpose would have been served to have sent them bread?

103 posted on 12/28/2004 1:08:27 PM PST by William Tell
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To: Dont_Tread_On_Me_888
I fear you may be comparing apples and oranges. The only agencies really doing anything about poverty around the world are voluntary charities, mostly Christian. Confiscated moneys are nearly worthless when it comes to ameliorating the human condition. ,p>Granted, there are religious frauds and con artists, but their avarice pales in comparison to that of the large secular "charities," like United Way. Religious organizations also have self-policing organizations that require external audits and general transparency.

Granted, too, non-Christian "charities," like various muslim groups, do fund terrorists. SO too did non-fundamentalist "christian" groups in recent history.

104 posted on 12/28/2004 1:15:48 PM PST by TomSmedley (Calvinist, optimist, home schooling dad, exuberant husband, technical writer)
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To: William Tell

OK. So we'll just send the people of Sri Lanka and Sumatra videos of people in the US enjoying the beaches unencumbered by those pesky tsunamis. That should make them feel better.


105 posted on 12/28/2004 1:16:37 PM PST by cwiz24 (Hey Democrats---Now who's ya daddy?)
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To: cwiz24

I just spent all my money at Costco. Nice... I have lots of stuff now.


106 posted on 12/28/2004 1:23:51 PM PST by 12.7mm
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To: 12.7mm

What?


107 posted on 12/28/2004 1:26:14 PM PST by cwiz24 (Hey Democrats---Now who's ya daddy?)
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To: cwiz24
cwiz24 said: "OK. So we'll just send the people of Sri Lanka and Sumatra videos of people in the US enjoying the beaches unencumbered by those pesky tsunamis. That should make them feel better."

I am reminded of the postings I have seen which read, "Poor planning on your part, does not constitute an emergency on my part."

If I gave YOU the choice between helping save the lives of 10,000 people in that region of the world by distributing direct aid or spending the same dollars installing an effective tsunami warning system with the potential to save twice that many lives during the next earthquake, which would you choose?

Some of my local tax dollars are being spent to save an endangered species of salamander. I would send that money anyplace you like.

108 posted on 12/28/2004 1:29:48 PM PST by William Tell
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To: William Tell
Fine. Why don't you tell this boy that money will not be coming to help him get home or find his family?



I believe that money should be put toward PREVENTING this kind of thing in the future, but that does not solve the problem of millions of displaced people and thousands of orphans.
109 posted on 12/28/2004 1:35:30 PM PST by cwiz24 (Hey Democrats---Now who's ya daddy?)
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To: mountaineer

Just donated to them. Looks like they are on the ground and ready to give relief.


110 posted on 12/28/2004 1:39:49 PM PST by antceecee (Father, please comfort the families who lost loved ones in this tragedy....)
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To: cwiz24
cwiz24 said: "Why don't you tell this boy that money will not be coming to help him get home or find his family?

For all I know, this little boy has a net worth which exceeds my own. Charity is not the only means by which people can cope with disaster.

How much should I send? Enough to search for this boys parents? For how long? Using what method? Diverting what resources from feeding others? Who will decide?

How will you FEEL if I send money but then nobody bothers to search for this boys parents? Does that matter? Is there some amount of money that would ensure that a search was made for this one boy's parents? How much is that?

What will happen to this boy if not enough money is sent? Will he be put up for adoption by a local family? Sold into slavery? How much will ensure that he gets home?

I would gladly divert the entire budget of the United Nations to help this boy.

111 posted on 12/28/2004 1:59:12 PM PST by William Tell
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To: William Tell; cwiz24
Great post, William Tell.

You see, cwiz24, some of us think forward and we think big. People like you throw money at charities and think you did some good. You are hurting these people more than you are helping them. You are spittin' into the wind.

I just heard a piece on the radio from a person from Sri Lanka who has immediate family in Sri Lanka begging us not to send aid! Why? Because she said all the "aid" that they have received over the years has been diverted to corrupt officials, the same thing William Tell and I have been saying.

You should spend your time and money getting the United States to stop sending our tax dollars overseas. That would be a far more noble cause.

In the end, the people of these poor regions of the world would benefit more in the long run if the taxpayers of the Unites States were no longer tax slaves.

112 posted on 12/28/2004 2:56:01 PM PST by Dont_Tread_On_Me_888 (John Kerry--three fake Purple Hearts. George Bush--one real heart of gold.)
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To: Dont_Tread_On_Me_888

Your full of it. The U.N. must have met you before it released the remark about "stingy" Americans.


113 posted on 12/28/2004 4:11:44 PM PST by olrtex
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To: olrtex
Your full of it.

Well now, let me see. I'll just read my post to see what got you to say that . . .

START POST......Giving money is not a wise option. Cash will never reach any of the victims. The "Oil for Food" program clearly shows how "cash" works in thug nations. Yes, this is a tragedy, but all cash will do is line a corrupt official's pocket. Unless somebody can physically go there and help, like some medical volunteers do, your cash to any organization will be wasted.

END POST

I guess you are correct! I am full of insight. I am full of logic and rational thinking. I am full of correctness at the expense of political correctness. I am full of honesty.

Thank you for your very fine compliment. It is great to see fellow members recognize a well though out post.

I truly want to thank you for the recognition of the point I was making.

114 posted on 12/28/2004 4:25:41 PM PST by Dont_Tread_On_Me_888 (John Kerry--three fake Purple Hearts. George Bush--one real heart of gold.)
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To: cwiz24
I would never give to the Red Cross.

Not after I found out that almost a year later they still were witholding $500+ million that people contributed specifically to the victims of 9/11 and their families. I figured up how much interest they were making in just a few months time by holding that money and it's sickening.

I never heard if they ever did get that $500+ million distributed to the victims.

I doubt that they did and what wasn't used as bonuses or to refurbish offices probably is still sitting in the bank or mutual funds collecting interest that they can use to refurbish more offices and give out more bonusus and raises.

All that extra blood they collected that wasn't needed they could have given to other areas but I read they threw it all away and I object to them charging victims for the donated blood.

115 posted on 12/28/2004 4:30:44 PM PST by Freedom Dignity n Honor
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To: vaudine
Well, we could be dancing in the streets, celebrating the fact that so many Muslims have died in one day, but we're not. Think anyone concerned will notice?
116 posted on 12/28/2004 4:35:20 PM PST by Concentrate
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To: cwiz24

So far Americares seems to be efficient. I could be wrong.


117 posted on 12/28/2004 4:49:10 PM PST by txhurl
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To: Concentrate

"...anyone will notice?"......Nah!

I am certainly not "dancing its", but wondered as a mattere of curiosity if the victims were mostly from muslim countries. Of course, it seems many were European.

vaudine


118 posted on 12/28/2004 5:54:45 PM PST by vaudine
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To: dead

Is it just me, or does the idea that national television crews showing up to film and report (and talk to survivors) seem crass? It does to me.


119 posted on 12/28/2004 5:57:45 PM PST by mabelkitty (Blackwell for Governor in 2006!!!)
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To: Strategerist

Arabian Sea / Indian Ocean - it doesn't matter. Tsunamis don't read geography books.


120 posted on 12/28/2004 6:04:29 PM PST by reg45
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