THE SITUATION IN PATEK

Alex Yap: This is posted on behalf of Chris Ranken, an Electric Lamb volunteer currently on the Batavia. He wrote this yesterday, on Friday 28/01/2004.



The Batavia spent another day in Meulaboh yesterday. We surveyed the situation both in the city, and by helicopter in the rural areas to the north; we coordinated with several other relief operations; and we dropped off supplies and a dozen volunteers, many of whom are joining the relief effort in that hard-hit city. We weighed anchor shortly after midnight this morning and headed north to the neediest areas. We arrived at the former site of Patek (purple dot) at dawn.

On the ground here, it is chillingly clear what happened. The massive 9.0 earthquake here appears to have lowered the entire coastline, in one jolt, by up to two meters. This pulled a huge surge of seawater inland. This surge flooded the whole area up to a depth of some 12 meters (40 feet), in a matter of seconds. Residents of the town simply had no chance against the massive wall of water--a wall powerful enough to snap 50-cm thick columns of concrete like toothpicks.

Patek was a beautiful seaside town, with lovely beaches rimmed by palm trees and volcanic peaks. But the water simply obliterated the town. The low-lying site now lies partially underwater: the crumbled remains of the coastal highway are below sea level, and a mosque, which had been under construction 200 meters in from the shore, now has waves lapping at what remains of it: a flattened and mangled mass of twisted, crushed stone and concrete.

The survivors of the tsunami fled a few kilometers into the hills, often to nearby villages. Many lost their entire families, and now feel lost in their new surroundings. One survivor, the patriarch of a large family of twenty-six including children and grandchildren, lost twenty-two members of his family—including a granddaughter who had been wrested from his arms as the water crushed his town. Yet still he selflessly talked of others, such as fishermen who rode out the tsunami at sea and lost every single member of their large families.

We transported several tons of food, medicine, clothing, and sanitation supplies to a number of small settlements in the area. Many of these people had received virtually no aid in the month since the tsunami. It is gratifying to be welcomed so graciously, and with such goodwill and appreciation, by some of the neediest victims of this tragedy.

Many survivors in this area fled to the nearby village of Fajar, located high enough to have been untouched by the tsunami. They have remained there ever since. They have nothing to go home to—and they have lingering fears of the sea, which are compounded by continuing major aftershocks. Our medical team, led by Dr. Aliza Weinman, flew by helicopter to the village. At a makeshift clinic, we examined and treated some two hundred people for a wide variety of maladies, many related to the unsanitary post-tsunami conditions that prevail along this entire coast.

For the most seriously ill patients, a hospital ward has been set up on board the Batavia. Diseases like typhoid and malaria are a serious threat, sometimes seen together in the same patient. Among the typhoid cases we have seen are the father and pregnant mother of an adorable but terrified two-year-old, all of whom are currently aboard the Batavia undergoing further diagnosis and treatment by our on-board medical team. Their prognosis is already improving, and we are hopeful that we have begun treatment in time.

We have other tasks besides assisting the survivors. Tomorrow, we will help bury perhaps 100 bodies, still lying untouched near the sea a month later. This task makes frighteningly clear how open this awful wound still is: one month after the catastrophe, it has barely begun to heal. It will be a long, long time before life ever approaches normal again for the survivors at Patek.

--Chris Ranken, on board K.M. Batavia

A nautical mile (nm) is 1,852 meters, or 1.852 kilometers. In the English measurement system, a nautical mile is 1.1508 miles, or 6,076 feet; Patek is 12nm north of Calang. The position of the purple dot is approximate.