It was a beautiful Sunday morning and Udin’s outdoor coffee shop café was filled with customers sipping their favorite local java blend in the warm Sumatran sun. But tranquility was interrupted when patrons at Udin’s coastal cafe and throughout Meulaboh, Indonesia began to feel a subtle shaking. Within seconds the tremor erupted into a jarring quake that lasted for more than a minute.

Udin said his customers were so rattled that some left. Others stayed and ordered more coffee to calm their nerves. Udin kept working, trying to put the apprehension of the earthquake out of his mind.

Photo of peninsula laid waste by tsunami waves.

Less than a half-hour later Udin said the shoreline nearby began to recede, with the ocean waters draining backward. Shortly thereafter, he was pouring coffee at a table outside and looked up to see a monstrous wave roaring toward land. It was taller than the local radio tower! People began screaming, and Udin ran to grab the hands of his wife and three-year-old daughter. With his sister-in-law also in tow the four of them began to run. They made it only a few yards before a sweeping current overtook them and all were sucked underwater.

Udin felt his wife slip from his grasp, as he clutched his daughter tightly against his body. Clasping for something – anything – with his hand that was now free, he managed to snag a tree branch and held on for both of their lives. Thankfully, the tree held.

Udin and his daughter were able to climb down less than an hour later, when the waves and rushing waters below had finally calmed. As the sea receded, Udin witnessed utter devastation emerge around him. What was once a dynamic community now looked like a war zone. Almost every structure was leveled. Dead bodies were everywhere; faces he recognized. But the one he searched for he couldn’t find – his wife.

Three days of agony and uncertainty passed before Udin received the news he had been praying to hear – his wife had been found, hundreds of yards from shore, hanging on to a piece of wood. She was injured, but alive. Her sister was also rescued from the ocean on the exact opposite side of the peninsula from Udin’s wife.

Thousands of Meulaboh residents have yet to be found, and may never be. In the city of 97,000, the death toll now stands at 28,000. More than 57,000 other people are homeless and struggling to cope with the greatest tragedy ever to strike their region.

Operation Blessing Indonesia is at work in Meulaboh and throughout areas affected by the tsunami helping survivors like Udin. Medical relief teams have been dispatched to provide care for displaced residents in refugee camps, while additional doctors are reaching remote coastal communities via small planes equipped with water landing gear. Also, Operation Blessing teams were asked by local officials to staff a triage clinic at the one hospital that is operable in Meulaboh. Doctors will assess patient needs and admit those in serious condition while treating those in need of outpatient care.

Clean-up crews from Operation Blessing Indonesia have fanned out throughout the city, helping residents like Udin pick up the pieces of his property and life.

Please join with us in supporting the survivors in tsunami-ravaged areas of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand. Help is needed now!

HOW YOU CAN HELP
You can help by making an online donation toward OBI's disaster relief efforts. With your support, we can continue to provide emergency relief and recovery. Please make an on-line donation today.

 

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