One month after the west Sumatra earthquake

It's now four weeks since the earthquake struck. The Red Cross has delivered crucial relief items to over 9,000 families. Medical teams have treated over 5000 people in remote areas. We are now starting building 10,000 temporary shelters. Today I travelled with Red Cross colleagues to monitor the relief distribution so far. Here are a few photographs

Pak Sudir sits in a chair one month after the earthquake on the site where nine of his family were killed "What can I do, I lost everything. " In the sub village of "Paramancu, Padang Pariaman district, 76 people were killed in this village alone when a huge mudslide engulfed them . Less than a few hundred metres away, two other villages were hit too, killing an additional 149 people. Photo: Bob McKerrow Pak Arifin director of the DM dept at the PMI headquarters whom I travelled with today. Photo: Bob McKerrow
Pak Sudir with his neighbour Ahmad who lost four members of his family. between the two, they lost 13 family members while they were in nearby fields working. Photo: Bob McKerrow
Today we visited the very remote village of Selangan Tinqqi and had a good talk to the villagers about the helicopter distributions of food, tarpaulins, kitchen utensils, clothes, tool kits and hygiene kits we have delivered in the past two weeks. They were also pleased with the mobile medical teams we have sent in. Here Wayne Ulrich our ops manager discusses the situation with villagers. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Targeting 100,000 affected people

Its 4a.m. in the morning. I got up an hour ago and packed for my trip from Jakarta to Padang. The flight leaves at 6 a.m. I just checked the boys who are sleeping soundly. They haven't seen much of their Dad since the quake struck just over a week ago. Last night my eldest boy Ablai said, "Dad, I don't want you to go." I have heard that many times but it never lessens the pangs of departure.

I have been in Jakarta the last few days working on an appeal to increase our support from the current 5,000 families to 20,000 families which is over 100,00 affected people. Last night we finalised the appeal and posted it on the web. It is almost 19 million US dollars. We have about US$ 7 million to date so I hope the remained will come in quickly from our very loyal member national societies.

This revised emergency appeal is in response to a request from the Indonesia Red Cross (Palang Merah Indonesia/PMI) to enable the national society to provide more relief and early recovery support to those most affected by the earthquakes. Since the preliminary appeal went out, casualty and damage figures have risen considerably, revealing increased needs which PMI is seeking to meet. The appeal seeks support to scale up and provide assistance to 20,000 families (100,000 individuals) through the continuation of relief distribution of non-food items, shelter, psycho-social support, water and sanitation intervention, health and medical provisions and logistics support.

If times permits I will post an update tonight. Gotta run to the airport. Bob

Diary from the earthquake in West Sumatra.

The Red Cross relief operation in support of a huge number of people affected by the earthquake last week in West Sumatra is runing well. At 6.30 am a large convoy of PMI (Indonesian Red Cross) trucks with vital relief items left for the field. We have two helicopters flying today into remote mountainous regions not yet accessible by road. One is flying in medical teams dealing with the serious injuries and the other food. I don;t have time to write any more but I post a story below that my colleague Patrick Fuller wrote yesterday. Patrick is our communications guy based in KL.Patrick and I have worked in about five major disaster so we are close friends.


Finally, we arrived at our destination, a mobile clinic set up by a doctor and eight nurses who worked at the Indonesian Red Cross hospital in Bogor in Western Java.



Volunteers of Indonesian Red Cross prepare meals for their colleagues who are working on evacuation process in Padang City. "It's hard to find any food shops open so we have lunch at a communal kitchen set up by the local authorities outside the local government office" "It is strictly no frills. Sitting cross-legged eating cold rice with a spicy sardine gravy with my right hand proves quite challenging". (photo by: Wayne Ulrich/International Federation)


Patrick Fuller of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies travels to an open-air clinic in Pariaman district, which was close to the epicentre of Wednesday's deadly quake in Indonesia
Off to an 0530 start this morning, thanks to the heat and mosquitoes in my airless room.

It was a slightly fretful night as I was conscious of staying on the second floor of a large concrete structure, perhaps not the best option given the continued aftershocks.

I wanted to visit one of the health posts set up in Pariaman district, which was at the epicentre of the quake.

The road was choked with a bizarre array of organisations wanting to do good, from a squad of teenagers on mopeds with Dynasty Computers delivering boxes of noodles to the homeless, to members of the Singapore armed forces and the Indonesian 4x4 club.

Most people here live along the road and house after house had collapsed. We came across Hans Polak from the Swiss Red Cross, who is the team leader for Swiss Rescue, a 125-member team who flew in with 18 search and rescue dogs.

Hans sees shelter as the main need for the recovery programme. He had just visited a village in the area where every one of the 168 houses had collapsed but remarkably only 4 people had died.

But 80% of their wells had been destroyed, so providing clean water is a priority need that the Red Cross will be addressing.

It's hard to find any food shops open so we have lunch at a communal kitchen set up by the local authorities outside the local government office.

It is strictly no frills. Sitting cross-legged eating cold rice with a spicy sardine gravy with my right hand proves quite challenging.

'Amazing escape'

Finally, we arrived at our destination, a mobile clinic set up by a doctor and eight nurses who worked at the Indonesian Red Cross hospital in Bogor in Western Java. The clinic was operating out of an open shelter next to a semi-collapsed house.

Dr Arfan and his team had been seeing an average of 50 patients a day, about 20% had injuries stemming from the earthquake.

Nur Asmi was lying on the makeshift examination bed, smiling at me while a nurse squeezed a massive blood clot from a huge gash in her head.

Having had her wound stitched up she calmly hopped on her bike and cycled home.

She had been cooking the family supper when the earthquake brought her roof down. A beam struck her just before she managed to escape. Amazing, that she and her five children survived.

The roof was sitting awkwardly on the ground concealing the rubble of the house underneath.

Like many of the children in these villages her kids had laid a small branch across the road to slow the traffic.

They stand in the road holding out cardboard boxes with a scrawled message saying "we are hungry" written on it.

No-one is actually going hungry, but the earthquake has disrupted food supplies arriving into local markets and people are making the most of the passing well-wishers, who drive through dispensing bottled water, biscuits and dried noodles.

Tomorrow we are setting up a mobile kitchen in the area, just so that people can manage during these difficult days.

DEATH, DESTRUCTION AND HOPE IN SUMATRA EARTHQUAKE.

It's almost 2 am on Sunday morning. Yesterday, Saturday 3 October is one of those days etched in my life and brain forever.

I nabbed 4 hours sleep last night and woke up restless thinking of all those people trapped under buildings in Padang, perhaps 2000 of them. who knows. I awoke about 5.30 am, had breakfast with Pak Irman from the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) and then went walkabout alone.

50 metres down the road a six story building is crumpled into one story. Like a squashed tube of tooth paste, the other floors ooze out the side in the form of pulverized rubble. No one has come out alive yet and I am told that 20 people are in there.

I WALK FOR AN HOUR SEEING DEATH AND DESTRUCTION. THANK GOD THE SWISS RED CROSS/GOVERNMENT TEAM HAVE WORKED THROUGH THE NIGHT WITH THEIR LOCATER DOGS AND SEEM OPTIMISTIC. Red Cross people from 8 countries have come to help. We are starting to get on top of the relief phase but a huge task ahead of us. I have ordered another helicopter today so the PMI medical people can get out to those villages cut off and make sure people don't die of injuries and infection. Juggling priorities is difficult.

I don't want to dwell much more on the death I have seen, but in a trip to China town where a high school collapsed, 20 or so girls in fresh bright uniforms stand outside their flattened school, hoping, willing and praying their class mates will be rescued. Hope diminishes by the minute as tears flood down their round cheeks.


The Indonesian Red Cross Blood Bank continues work outside after their building collapsed. Photo: Bob McKerrow


The PMI blood bank collapsed in the quake and I visited it with Pak Mar'ie, Chairman PMI. Outside on the forecourt, Red Cross blood transfusion experts take blood out in the open. The 200 units they have taken in the last few days have saved many lives. I lie down on a bed and give a bag full. It is a token gesture but I feel better after that. That's me, its not the organisation. People take my blood, a pound of fles here or there, but I give it when I choose.

Then down to the Red Cross HQ. A hive of activity. I run out of words when i see these volunteers giving all. The most difficult task are the rescue people who have to take the dead bodies out of the rubble and with dignity, put them in bags, and take them to the morgue for identification. But I was talking to one of the team and he said,"whole bodies are rare, we find a hand there, a finger here, another part there, and we try to make sure we keep the complete person in one bag." It is so important for the relatives to see their whole relative," he said in such a caring way. I admire his commiyment to human dignity.

I need some sleep so I will paste from Al Jazeera. I had a brief interview with Veronica Pedrosat today.


Rescuers are continuing to dig through the rubble of collapsed buildings on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, several days after a deadly earthquake struck the region, but officials say hopes of finding survivors alive are rapidly diminishing.

Only a handful of survivors had been pulled from the rubble by Saturday, three days since the 7.6 magnitude quake toppled tens of thousands of buildings in the coastal town of Padang and surrounding villages.

Up to 4,000 people are believed to be trapped under the rubble following Wednesday's earthquake, the United Nations estimates.

Villages wiped out

Jusuf Kalla Indonesia's vice-president said he did not expect many more people to be pulled alive from the devastated landscape.

"Most people here are trapped and buried inside buildings. You cannot hope for more survivors. I think most of them have died," Kalla, speaking during a visit to Pariaman, north of Padang, told reporters.


Al Jazeera's Wayne Hay, reporting from Tandikat in Pariaman, said that three villages had been completely wiped out after a hillside collapsed during the quake.

"What we can see here now is just a scene of absolute devastation - it is covered with mud, dirt after landslides came tumbling down into the valley," he said.

"There really isn't even any sign of debris here, just mud and trees."

Rescue workers were unable to reach the area, normally just a 90 minute drive from Padang, for two days because the roads were cut by landslides and debris.

"We have seen a very small number of military people here and they have one digger, one piece of heavy equipment ... so it is going to be a long road ahead," Hay said.

Estimates of how many people were killed in Pariaman vary, with one tribal chief telling Al Jazeera that at least 300 had been killed.

Bob McKerrow, the head of the Indonesia delegation of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Society, said aerial photos showed the extent of the damage in the mountainous outlying regions.

He said hundreds of villages were in the disaster zone, and that the few he had visited had all reported deaths and serious injuries.

"Typically in every village, there's an old woman with a broken back with a gash on her arm and she's not moving. That's why we're sending in helicopters with medical teams," he said.

Death and destruction

The official death toll for the region currently stands at 777, with hundreds more injured.

More than 20,000 buildings have been destroyed and 2,400 people hospitalised across seven districts, Priyadi Kardono, a spokesman for the national disaster agency, said.




Al Jazeera's Veronica Pedrosa, reporting from Padang, said that foreign aid teams were continuing to arrive at the town's airport and still believed that some of the victims could be found alive.

"It is going to be very difficult for anyone to have survived beneath the rubble, but experts say it is possible on the fourth day depending on the injuries sustained, the strength of the person involved and whether they have managed to get drops of water," she said.

"There are signs of life here and that is confirmed by the international rescue teams with their sniffer dogs."

A number people were believed to be trapped under the rubble of the ruined Dutch-colonial era Ambacang Hotel in the town.

"We think there are eight people alive in there. One sent an SMS to a relative in a village, who got the text at 3pm [08:00 GMT] yesterday," Arkamelvi Karmani, an army officer involved in the rescue operation, said.

The message reportedly called for help and implored rescuers: "Be careful that the excavator doesn't cause the building to collapse on us."

Rescuers were building a tunnel into the rubble to try to reach them.

The quake is very bad in Sumatra !

It is really bad out there.

Just a quick update on Indonesia. Wayne Ulrich returned one and a half hours ago from a seven hour aerial assessment of the remote parts of the earthquake affected region. An experienced campaigner who has seen many civil wars in Africa for MSF, the Tsunami for CARE described what he saw today in the remote hills and valleys of the greater Padang area as like seeing the effects of an Atomic bomb being dropped on a huge region. He reported houses, mosques, clinics and schools flattened, and on hilly spurs, villages wiped out by landslides. When they landed in villages people walked about dazed not knowing whether to laugh or cry. No medical help visible as being walked about injured or sick.

This will be the Red Cross challenge, getting to the most vulnerable, the most affected in the remote areas.

Wayme and PMI experts went in with Tuckey, Colin Tuck, the NZ helicopters pilot I spoke of on my last posting. He was brilliant and took Wayne into all the remote villages.

I am going in tomorrow with Chairman PMI (Indonesian red Cross) to meet with Wayne and his dedicated PMI colleagues to get their assessment. Also Tuckey will fly us to drop in medical help and food.

It is a big quake and I have that nervous feeling it is bigger than expected.

600 people dead to date but that toll will double ? But it is the living we strive for, we plan for and live for.

Just about to grab a few hours sleep before a 4 am start. Flight to Padang at 6 am.

S-l-e-e-p w-e n-e-e--d t-e-l-l a-l-l p-e-o-p-l-e.

Bob

New Zealand helicopter pilot in middle of Sumatra earthquake

Damage in Pedang. Photo: BBC.
It's 6.45 am. Grabbed an hour's sleep between 4.45 and 5.45 am. Conducted over 35 interviews during the night. Just said goodbye to the boys as they left to catch the school bus.

The best first hand account I have got so far if from my old friend Colin Tuck. Tucky is one of New Zealand's best helicopter pilots and is based in a village called Battang Toro west north west of Pedang. His company services oil rigs drilling out in the Indian Ocean. He felt the quake yesterday and said it was a huge shake and just went on and on. With a wry sense of humour he said, " I was with 4 Aussies when the quake struck, and they were shitting themselves, but being a Kiwi living on the faultline in NZ, I handled it OK." Tucky then informed me that as a boy he lived through the Inangahua earthquake, the biggest ever to hit New Zealand in 1968. I think it was an 8.9 or 9.0 on the Richter scale. I knew Tucky when he was a helicopter pilot at Fox Glacier and I was in charge of alpine rescue. We did a few rescues together.

Tucky said its raining heavily and he has been unable to take off. He said the weather is clearing.

I've been in touch with Wayne Ulrich my disaster management coordinator who is trying to get a flight from Medan to Padang. If that fails we will try to see if Tucky can fly him in. Wayne will be joining the Indonesian Red Cross DM staff . We are getting reports that the Indonesian Red Cross has 30 community based action teams on the ground providing first aid and rescue, and 12 assessment teams. Fift volunteers Red Cross doctors are flying in to provide medical help. During the past 18 months the Indonesian Red Cross have conducted an extensive disaster preparedness programme in the area and have relief supplies on hand. Will keep you posted.

Bob