surfaid 26 Sep 2007No Comments 203 views Print Email

  Green, surf

SurfAid International mobilises two more emergency relief boats
SurfAid sent another two emergency relief boats - the Mikumba and the Indies Trader I - into the Mentawai Islands tonight, making a total of six now out in the field.

On board were staff from both SurfAid and Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) Belgium (Doctors Without Borders).

Their 20 tonne-cargo included 4,000 blankets, 2,000 tarpaulins and medical supplies.

Both boats were heading to Sikakap to meet up with the MSF and SurfAid teams that have been on the ground since last week, working in villages along the east coast of Pagai Utara.

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SurfAid Emergency Relief Manager Tom Plummer returned to Padang from the Mentawai Islands by plane this morning after taking out a new speedboat SurfAid has recently bought.
“It was a very rough crossing with strong southerly tradewinds blowing,” Tom said.

” I spoke to Martupang, who is head of the puskesmas (health clinic) at Betaet, which is a very isolated village on the west coast of Siberut, the most northern Mentawai island. He reported that they barely felt the tremors on that coast and there was no damage to houses. Martupang had come to Tuapejat, the regional capital of the Mentawai Islands, to have a meeting at the Mentawai Health Department.”

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9pm Communication from Jon Ocean, on board the SurfAid relief ferry, D’bora:
The SurfAid team on board D’bora had been to the village of Malakopa, on the southernmost Mentawai island of Pagai Selatan (South Pagai), which had suffered the worst damage from the earthquakes with 95 per cent of houses destroyed.

“Wood houses definitely handled better than the badly contructed cement ones,” Jon Ocean from D’bora said.

“We couldn’t believe the amount of coral that was raised out of the water.

“The camps on the hills are really gnarly and are not healthy at all.

“The Malakopa community is planning to shift permanently to the hill and rebuild there, likewise for some other communities. They are building toilets and basic infrastructure in the camps, which is both a sign of their resilience and also the intention to shift the location of the village to a safer place on the hill as they are scared of a tsunami.

“The places where we delivered aid (toolkits, shelter and hygiene kits) were very appropriate as per the needs of the people. And they are mostly using mosquito nets in the camps, which is good.” (SurfAid did a major mosquito net distribution and education program in the region earlier this year.)

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SurfAid staff member Jati, on board SurfAid’s emergency relief boat Melaleuca, also reported in tonight via sms (on board are staff from SurfAid and the Indonesian Red Cross -PMI):

“In the past two days we delivered aid to 12 villages at the southern tip of the Mentawais (the Sinaka region) and to Makalo (east coast Pagai Selatan). We also did medical assessments,” Jati wrote.

“The distribution to Parabatu and Talok Pulai (east coast Pagai Selatan) was difficult due to strong southerly tradewinds (up to 30 knots).

“Some of the villages that we are trying to get to have two foot (half metre) waves breaking on the shore, and the rivermouths are a similar situation, making access more difficult.

“There have been two serious injuries to surfers on the reef at the famous break of Macaronis in the past five days - this could be due to the reef lifting as it is shallower.”

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Captain John McGroder reports via email from the surf charter boat Barrenjoey, which has been in the hard-hit southern part of the Mentawai Island chain.

(This report follows on from John’s verbal report of Saturday 22 September - Situation Report No. 9 re the Sinaka region of Pagai Selatan - South Pagai):

“Besides a significant rise in the whole southern area (at least a metre) this is what we saw/achieved,” John wrote.

“We dropped 15 by 25kg sacks of beras (rice) at Mangkaulu and a karung (bag) of matches. Probably 30 per cent of houses are uninhabitable. No major injuries. Diarrhea among the children. The whole village has been sleeping in the hills each evening as they are scared of tsunamis. This has been going on since the first one (on Wednesday 12 September). They are too scared to go fishing. They are uneducated as to why the land has risen and whether there will be more earthquakes. I told them the worst should be over. Probably better to be positive so they can get on with their lives. A lot of mosquitoes in the hills, so I guess malaria could come into play soon.”

“Requests for minyak goreng (cooking oil), minyak tanah (kerosene), anti nyamuk (mosquito repellent), obat diarrhea (diarrhea medicine), cement, tarpaulins. They have tools and utensils.”

“Also dropped off 10 by 25kg at Mabola. Village in better shape. Similar requests as above. Similar situation.”

“Dropped off 15 by 25kg at Matotonan. Getting late so did not survey the village, but was told all smashed. I would guess, a similar situation to the other villages. They had decided to stay and fish this afternoon.”

“The lighthouse at Pulau Singingi is down.”

“All our passengers helped out and were enlightened and felt good after it all. Told them SurfAid was a decent agency to donate.”

“I am going into Bulasat this morning to try and fix up Dr Kerry’s GPS. Will report back tonight.”

Cheers,
John McGroder

PS. The 4m croc that has been sighted in the rivers at the above anchorage is now roaming the Sinaka anchorage as the rivers are too dry. Might be prudent not to swim at night!!!

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Dr Kerry Sieh looks for someone to repair his earthquake monitoring station
Regarding the trip to Bulasat and Dr Kerry’s GPS (story above), Barrenjoey skipper John McGroder was reacting to a request from Professor Kerry Sieh of Caltech (the California Institute of Technology) re damage to one of their GPS monitoring stations.
Sieh wrote: “We have downloaded remotely our GPS data from our station at Silabu (Pagai Utara) and will know how that part of North Pagai moved during the earthquakes. But, we are still desperate to find out what happened to our GPS station at Bulasat (on the west coast of South Pagai).

“It may be that the little telemetry antenna atop the instrument pole broke off and all we have to do is get out there and put it back upright. But our worst fear is that the church next to the station collapsed and severely damaged the station. If that is the case, we will need to go out there and do major repairs.”
Sieh later reported to SurfAid: “We heard from John Mac earlier today (Sunday 23 September) that he was able to repair the station at Bulasat with tape. We are ecstatic about that and are going to be attempting to download the data via satellite telemetry now. So no need to go there for us.

“However, any information on the amount of uplift that you can provide at the places you visit will help us prepare for our helicopter mission out there in mid-October. If your folks can make rough estimates of how high the formerly living coral heads are out of the water now at low tide, that would help. We are especially interested now in getting some idea of what happened on the east coasts of the Pagais and around the northern part of North Pagai.