Tsunami & Earthquake Reports from the President

Nias Island, Indonesia, 3-31-05, 6AM EST

Situation is dire. At least half of the houses and buildings are destroyed, aftershocks continue to terrify survivors, roads and bridges are broken, power is out, hundreds are dead, thousands of injured are waiting for medical help, most people are too fearful to sleep indoors… and it’s raining. Operation Blessing, with its partners, is one of very few relief organizations on the ground.

The OBI surgical team arrived Thursday to join our two teams already there. The hospital in Gunung Sitoli, the island’s largest city, is partially collapsed. The surgical suite is intact but inoperable. Our team is working with local hospital staff to repair the surgical facility and expect to begin doing emergency surgeries within a few hours.

Our helicopter medical team scouted cut-off areas around Gunung Sitoli, provided services for many injured and transported 20 patients back to the airport for treatment at our clinic there.

OBI medical teams coordinated evacuation of critically injured patients utilizing our chartered aircraft and a plane provided by Samaritan's Purse. The patients were evacuated to a hospital in Medan, a large city in Sumatra unaffected by the tsunami and earthquake.

OBI delivered three truckloads of emergency relief packages to the Port of Sibolga, and has a charted boat ready to make the 80-mile trip across the straits to Nias Island as soon as Indonesian government clears the shipment. Samaritan's Purse has also provided food and relief supplies that will be transported on our charted boat.

We are very worried about the people on the islands north of Nias. So far, there has been no word from Simeulue of other islands closer to the earthquakes epicenter than Nias. OBI is partnering with ELM, an Australian NGO utilizing the good ship BATAVIA to provide relief and medical support for these outlying islands. OBI and ELM are now loading the BATAVIA in Banda Aceh, and hope to sail on Sunday with about 100 tons of food and relief supplies as well as an OBI medical team.

Nias Island, Indonesia, 3-30-05, 6AM EST

While governments send condolences and many NGOs send promises of assessment teams, Operation Blessing has already sent doctors, medicines to earthquake ravaged Nias Island.

The island of Nias, just off the West coast of Sumatra, bore the brunt of Monday’s 8.7 rated earthquake. The island, with population of approximately 500,000, including over 450,000 Christians, is suffering and crying out for help. As I write this, less than 48 hours after Monday’s quake, Operation Blessing Indonesia is already on the ground providing desperately needed emergency medical care for survivors, many of whom have lost limbs and suffered life threatening injuries caused by buildings that crumbled and collapsed.

Wednesday morning the first OB medical team arrived in Nias at the Gunung Sitoli airport in a plane provided by OBI partner Samaritan’s Purse. The team immediately set up at the airport and is serving a multitude of seriously injured patients as night falls. No other medical teams have arrived, and the need is desperate. Reports are that the hospital collapsed in the quake. Within an hour our second team, consisting of surgeons and paramedics will land at the same airport in a plane OBI chartered out of Medan. Arrangements have been made with the local Bupati for our team to set up in the center of town at the government office headquarters. By later tonight OBI will have 18 people on the ground providing medical services. Tomorrow we have a plane chartered to bring in a third OB medical team of nine doctors, paramedics and nurses.

OBI partner Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) has dedicated a plane to support OBI efforts. In addition OBI has contracted a charter airplane for the next five days to ferry medical teams, emergency rations and medicine, as well as medical personal provided by other NGOs. Today we have one, and by tomorrow, two helicopters dedicated to our efforts; one helicopter is provided by a CBN Indonesia board member and one by Heli Mission, a partnering Christian NGO. All flights are coordinated by MAF.

OBI has charted a boat capable of transporting ten tons per trip and is positioning it to shuttle two trips a day between the Sumatra Port of Sibolga and Nias Island. We will ship 10,000 emergency relief food packages at first, then within five days begin transporting 50 tons of rice donated by OBI partner Stop Hunger Now.

Indonesia, Tuesday, 3-1-05

Last week I attended ground-breaking ceremonies in four coastal Aceh communities where OB has government approval to build approximately 3,400 homes. We have invited Habitat for Humanity Indonesia, Samaritans Purse and United Way Indonesia as partners in the building projects. OB long-term plans for each of these "adopted" communities include clinics, boat building, revitalization of fishing industry and other livelihood programs. We will also encourage select NGOs to fund projects such as rice paddy renovation and schools in our adopted communities.

OB has launched a boat building project in Meulaboh utilizing (5) local boat builders. We have funded construction of a small riverside workshop to shelter boat builders during oncoming rainy season; the workshop is up and work has begun on the first seven boats. We will also provide fishing families with nets, lines and gear lost to the Tsunami. We intend to replicate this operation in each of the adopted Aceh communities.

Current efforts in adopted communities are still focused on medical, emergency hunger relief and Work-For-Cash. We currently employ over 400 Aceh workers daily. Besides the obvious benefits to communities from clean up, debris removal, boat building and mosquito fogging, the cash we pay workers is helping jump start local economies and providing previously idle and despondent survivors with gainful employment and hope for the future.

Indonesia, Wednesday, 1-26-05

Medical Clinics at Meulaboh Hospital and in Banda Aceh continue, but mobile clinics and feeding are now focused in areas along west coast of Aceh where washed out bridges prevent road access. OB partner Mission Aviation Fellowship continues to fly small fixed wing planes and a float plane carrying OB teams and emergency food packages. We also have use of a Bell Ranger helicopter and fly daily reconnaissance missions to locate pockets of refugees as well as dropping in medical teams and food into areas lacking airstrips or road access.

In Lhoong, an isolated coastal county south of Banda Aceh, we are operating the only clinic and supporting our doctors by helicopter from Banda Aceh. We have purchased a 35’ boat to increase volume of supplies and food delivered daily and are about to begin construction of a dock to enhance unloading efficiency. Near-term efforts in Lhoong will include mosquito control and construction of airstrip. Long-term we plan to partner with Habitat for Humanity Indonesia and United Way of Indonesia to adopt the village, build 500 homes, renovate medical clinic and provide Cash-For-Work programs.

The 200’ ferry boat BATAVIA pulled into Meulaboh today as planned. This is the ship we loaded in Jakarta last week with 50 tons of food, mosquito netting, kitchen ware and hygiene supplies. The boat will travel up the coast toward Banda Aceh preceded by our recon helicopter team and serve isolated villages along the way. Tomorrow we will make the first stop in Teunom, a cut-off river village north of Meulaboh. The people there are desperate. Today Ron Oates went in with the chopper, met with village leaders, found out what they need and planned tomorrow’s distribution. Ron will lead the operation that will utilize four boats shuttling back and forth between the ferry and the village. A UN representative told me today that OB Indonesia is the only NGO effectively serving the cut-off villages along the West Coast.

Indonesia, Friday, 1-21-05

The Batavia is an ocean-going ferry boat 200 feet long, 35 feet wide and four stories high. She used to haul hundreds of passengers at a time in Hong Kong. Yesterday, in the harbor at Jakarta Indonesia, the Batavia was transformed into a ship of mercy as OB Indonesia worked with local charities and volunteers to pack the ship full of food, water and critical relief supplies. I was on board all day and much of the night working with the OB staff to load over fifty tons of relief supplies including food, mosquito netting, bales of clothing, cooking pots and dishes, kitchen utensils, soap, shampoo, fresh fruit, coffee and many other things.

There are thousands of unreached Tsunami survivors suffering in tiny villages scattered along the west coat of Aceh Province where the mountains run parallel to the sea. There’s a lush shelf of land between the mountains and the sea that was a tropical paradise before December 26. The villages perched on that shelf are connected by a single coastal road that has many bridges. The earthquake crumbled most bridges and cut off many seaside villages. About a half hour after the earthquake, the gates of hell opened and the Tsunami stormed ashore. The only help available to survivors has been by helicopter and float plane. The voyage of the Batavia is the first major NGO effort to help isolated coastal villages. The ship was chartered by an Australian couple with a heart for the people of Aceh and sponsored by local businesses including Rolls Royce. OB provided most of the cargo.

The Batavia sailed this morning (1/21) at 4AM with cargo that included 80 tons of fresh water and thousands of plastic buckets. The ship will stop in Padang to pick up more supplies and an OB medical team equipped with portable clinic. In the meantime, OB is conducting daily helicopter reconnaissance flights from Meulaboh, as well as scouting missions with three small aircraft supplied by Mission Aviation Fellowship. By the time the ship arrives Monday night, with support and guidance of the Indonesian Military, the most critical destinations will be identified. We will relay information by satellite phone to the ship’s captain and our onboard team. The ship will move from place to place, anchoring offshore stricken areas, shuttling doctors and supplies ashore via six 20 foot boats with outboard engines. I will post progress reports as they become available. I am Bill Horan reporting for Operation Blessing in Indonesia.

Medan, Sumatra Indonesia, Monday, 1-17-05

I arrived in Jakarta on Saturday and met Mark McClendon (Director, OB Indonesia) at the airport. We flew to Medan, Sumatra and spent Saturday night. Sunday morning we chartered a small plane and flew to Meulaboh in North Aceh Province.

Meulaboh suffered cataclysmic damage; much worse than anything I have ever seen. Most structures along the shore were leveled as if blasted by a nuclear explosion. In low lying areas the Tsunami came in as far as seven kilometers. Estimated death toll is 12-15,000. Every single person I talked with told heart wrenching stories of lost loved ones.

The men in the photo were neighbors, and lived in the area behind where we are sitting. All but the man in the orange hat lost children or wives. The man next to me lost his three children and wife. He always looked on the verge of tears. The man next to him lost his wife but still clings to hope. He asked me to take his photo and ‘put it in the paper in America.’ He said “maybe my wife was washed to America and will see my photo and know that I am alive.” They told me they were trying to be cheerful and quit thinking about their pain.

Non Rawung, Executive Director of OB Indonesia, is heading the Banda Aceh operation. I will visit Banda Aceh on Wednesday and Thursday.

Colombo, Sri Lanka, 1-14-05

Kumar Periasamy is heading OB efforts in Sri Lanka. He is coordinating OB medical personnel from India and Singapore. Our team is operating in the Ampara district, providing medical services and medicine to persons made homeless by the Tsunami. The entire area along the coast near Ampara is destroyed. Sri Lankan government health officials have directed us, along with Canadian military medical teams, to provide services for a specific area containing nine refugee camps in Kalmunai, the worst-hit area. Local health officials meet daily to direct our team to the camp where we are needed most. Sri Lankan authorities seem very pleased that OB India has come to help. Commonality of Tamil language and similarity of Indian culture is a big factor.

Kumar and I met with the District Director of Health on Wednesday. I asked what the greatest need was. He explained that mosquito control is the most critical need at this time because the threat of malaria and dengue fever grows by the day. Heavy rains during the weeks following the Tsunami have created countless pools of stagnant and debris filled water which provides mosquito populations the opportunity to explode. Until major cleanup is accomplished—spraying insecticide is the only solution. The Health Department lost most of their equipment to the Tsunami and need fogging machines and associated supplies. I told the Director that OB would help, and asked for a list. The list was provided this morning, and I approved purchase of five fogging machines as well as boots, goggles, gloves, masks and protective suits for spray personnel.