Monday October 5
We felt our first aftershock tonight. Apparently hundreds of minor shocks have continued to rock Padang since last weeks double earthquake, but this one was the first to have actually shaken us up at World Vision's Emergency response Headquarters. As it hit the room froze and then as one body everyone made for the exits, our long day traversing the rubble strewn streets a vivid enough warning.
I've been here for one full day now... just 36 hours ago I was at home in Melbourne. Judging only by the drive from the Padang airport to WV Headquarters it did not appear to be the big-scale disaster I had anticipated. No more than 20 or 30 buildings showed any signs of cracks and only a handful were collapsed beyond repair. This, I would soon learn, is just how it is in Padang. For every house that is completely destroyed there is often one or two identical houses just down the street without a scratch. It hardly seems fair.
As we headed for Padang Pariaman - the area billed 'the worst affected zone' I tried to prepare myself for what lay ahead. Everyone at home had anticipated traumatic scenes of mass-devastation, the truth however was less dramatic and at the same time, almost more devastating. Padang Pariaman was not a built up area, no multi-story buildings collapsed, no-one was trapped for days... in Padang Pariaman, there are small houses, with big families, many of whom did not have the warning to get out in time. House after house was reduced to rubble and dust.
In every house that still stands there remains a family that is too scared to return inside for fear of future quakes. It is quite literally a devastated community in every sense of the word... and yet, what greeted us as we arrived alongside a World Vision truck laden with emergency supplies? It was not a defeated community desperately clawing for the much needed aid; rather, we were met by an energetic and grateful group of people, who had put the needs of their neighbours first, compiled lists of the neediest families and ensured that they received the first emergency packages. It was a reminder to me that we in Australia could learn much from communities in rural Indonesia who value people above possessions and who, in the face of losing everything else, have definitely not lost their humanity.
But even our time in 'the worst affected zone' could not prepare me for the site that awaited us back in Padang. The Ambacang Hotel has been a symbol of the devastation wreaked upon this city by the earthquakes last week. It is estimated that 200 people were in the hotel when it collapsed totally and already over 110 bodies have been removed. Five days later and after two days of torrential rain, it is unlikely there will be any survivors found amongst the stories-high pile of twisted metal and brick. The scene was like something out of a disaster movie and it truly took my breath away. The force of these quakes to bring down a huge structure like the Ambacang must have been truly terrifying.
Through these quakes and the subsequent mudslides I have seen the power of nature literally change the urban and rural landscape of Sumatra. And I have seen the ways in which small donations can have real power to affect lives half a world away. The money from World Vision's preparedness fund and from the Indonesia Earthquake Appeal is delivering blankets and tarps, ensuring no more lives are lost as homeless families brave torrential rain.
Tomorrow I will visit another World Vision initiative - Child Friendly Spaces... restoring hope and joy to devastated children...
Chris Olver
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
A boy plays outside his earthquake-destroyed classroom at the Timbalun Primary School Number 2 in a village on the outskirts of Padang, Indonesia's West Sumatra province, in the early hours of ...
