29/10/2010 / INDONESIA
Video posted on Facebook by Mark Loughran, originally posted on the Australian news website The Daily Telegraph.
Aerial photographs taken by the Indonesian government show that the wave penetrated deep into the shore, sometimes as far as 300 metres.
Survivor releases amateur video of Mentawai tsunami
Aerial view of Macaronis resort after the Tsunami. Only the main building is left standing. Posted on Macaronis Resport's web page.
Five days after a devastating Tsunami swept across the Indonesian archipelago of Mentawai a video shot by an Australian tourist who narrowly escaped the deadly wave has emerged on the Web.
The 3-meter high wave was triggered by a 7.7 magnitude earthquake off the western coast of the island of Sumatra on the night of October 26. The latest official death toll stands at 408, but disaster response officials believe it could top 600 as hope of finding the 303 people still missing fades. Almost 13,000 people have lost their homes and are living in makeshift camps on the island.
The Mentawais, a legendary destination for surfers, are an otherwise neglected and hard to reach part of Indonesia. In the immediate aftermath of the quake, damaged phone lines and a poor Internet connection made it almost impossible to reach survivors from the mainland or overseas.
Bad weather has hampered efforts to ferry aid such as tents, medicine, food and water to the islands by boat from the nearest port of Padang, which is more than half a day away, even in the best conditions.
Images and eyewitness accounts of the disaster have slowly begun trickling out as media crews reach the archipelago and tourists are repatriated. The following video was shot by Sebastian Carvallo, a tourist staying at the Macaronis surf resort, which was almost completely destroyed by the tsunami. It shows how the 20 staff and 17 guests on location when the wave hit were able to escape by running to the top floor of the resort’s main building. The video also shows life at the resort before the Tsunami hit.
Contributors
“We built the main building, which was designed to resist tsunamis, after the 2004 catastrophe”
Mark Loughran from Sisters Beach, Australia, is co-owner and manager of the Macaroni’s surf resort on Macaroni bay, which was one of the hardest hit by the tsunami. He has posted a call for donations on the resort’s website to help rebuild and find missing village residents.
The big problem is that the resort was the main source of income for many local people, who were either directly employed by it, or sold coconuts and local crafts to tourists. Now that the resort is closed until further notice, the village economy is basically dead, and locals have no source of income. In addition, many have lost loved ones and all their belongings. It’s going to be very hard to go back to normal.
What I’m trying to do is employ locals to work in cleanup teams, because right now there is a lot of debris everywhere that still needs to be evacuated. I hope we will eventually be able to rebuild the resort, but right now its future is uncertain. We were unfortunately not insured against tsunami damage, because in 2003, when we built the resort, there was no known risk of tsunamis in the area. Then in 2004 came the huge tsunami that ravaged South East Asia, so we decided to build the tall main building in the resort, which was designed to resist tidal waves. I’m so relieved we did, because that’s what saved the lives of the people in the resort. After they felt the earthquake, they immediately thought it might be followed by a tsunami so they rushed to the top floor of the main building. Minutes later, the wave swept through the resort, ravaging everything but leaving that one building standing.
Right now, we’re just trying to face things one day at a time. We’re extremely thankful that our staff and guests are all OK, but the cleanup and reconstruction left to do is huge. Some local NGOs as well as the Indonesian navy have come to the affected areas to help, but for now they are mostly providing food, supplies and emergency shelter to refugees. The long-term reconstruction effort will take a while.”
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Post written with France 24 journalist Lorena Galliot.
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Comments
Tsunami Mentawai: We need your Help
Submitted by Siloinak Surf Resort (not verified) on Sat, 30/10/2010 - 05:56.Siloinak Surf Resort’s team for Mentawai Tsunami needs your help
Surfers send emergency supplies to the Mentawai islands. We need your help.
Hi, I am Gilles Bordessoule, a Frenchman living in the Mentawai islands since 2004. I manage Siloinak Surf Resort, near Siberut , the largest island of the archipelago.
The 25 October, a tsunami strikes the west coasts of the islands of Pagai and Sipora, severely damaging or destroying about 30 villages and two surf resorts. Rescue teams have collected 500 bodies as far as now, but the number of casualties in isolated villages is unknown, as there is no phone or radio communication. A rough sea and strong winds make access to these villages very difficult.
A ship chartered by the American surfer Matt Georges (Last Mile Operation) has left Padang the 27, loaded with food and medical supplies. We plan to sail with our boat as soon as possible and deliver to the population of isolated villages material for building shelters : 4 tons of tarpoline, nylon ropes, hammers, saws, nails for building around 200 family shelters. Transportation and delivery request 4 tons of fuel.
The cost of this operation is about 9000 USD, of which Siloinak Surf Resort will finance a part, but we hope help from you allowing to repeat this operation some days after with other kinds of supplies.
This is why we send this request for donations. You can send yours by bank transfer to :
Mandiri Bank
SWIFT code : BMRIIDJA
Address : KC Padang Lapangan Imam Bonjo, Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia
Account Name : Bordessoule Gilles
Account Number : 111-00-0445103-1
These monies will be used exclusively for the purchase and delivery of goods given to the Mentawai people. You can learn more about Siloinak Surf Resort and the sustainable development actions we have organized in the Mentawai on www.mentawaiadventure.com . Reports and accounts concerning this operation will be published in www.mentawaiadventure.com , « Sustainable Development » pages.
If you had other proposals for helping the Mentawai people, please contact me at info at mentawaiadventure.com. The reconstruction will last several months.
Gilles and Novie Bordessoule.