UPDATE FROM SABANG

Late last night the team felt the rumble of the magnitude 8.7
earthquake while aboard Batavia alongside in the port of Sabang. The
effects of the quake were unclear to the group until early this
morning. Phil, Deal, and Mike were aboard the Batavia during the quake
while fellow team member Marshall was in Banda Aceh in meetings and the
team could not contact him after the quake.. After a few anxious hours,
a message made it through to the ship. Marshal was safe but he spent a
sleepless night along with the entire population of Banda Aceh city.

FISHERMEN DECIDED - PULAU RAYA

A single banana tree gets full protection from wild pigs and domestic buffalo at PULAU RAYA west camp. While the debate over relocating LHO KRUET continues, the fishermen on PULAU RAYA are determined to return and rebuild. Those with land that is elevated are building on old foundations and the rest are building 3m x 4m timber framed structures with iron roofing to cope with the coming rainy season (May till November). The greatest need is for supplies of roofing iron, nails, bolts and tools. There is enough fallen timber for planks and the process of milling suitable trees has started. The community is especially excited by the gererator, power tools and chainsaws donated by Canadian Relief.

A fallen tree is converted into lumber for housing. Rather than burning the logs and coconut trees that are piled up all over the island, the fishermen on the island want to convert them into buildings. There is a shortage of chainsaw operators so our volunteers are training some of the young men to use the chainsaws and powertools every day.

The fishing nets and canoes we donated last trip are producing results. Now that the fishermen have ice from Batavia, they can keep the fish they catch. We have offered to purchase everything they want to sell and word is spreading fast.

ACEH WEST COAST ROAD

I'm sure lots of decisions are being based on the assumption that the temporary road will soon open up the coast for reconstruction. It will while the rain holds off. A few weeks at best.

Our medical team and I went up to LIGAN yesterday along the new road. On the way up it was steep and rough but ok. Then we had a light rain shower. 30 minutes of light rain from a small thunderstorm.

Nothing could move! The road turned to a slide and it was impossible to go up or down hill! This road has just been upgraded and it has not been used yet! Wait till it gets some traffic and then some rain and the mountain sections will become impossible even for 4x4 vehicles. We waited till the sun came out and the road dried off. It was still very dangerous but passable on motorbikes. A 2 wheel drive car would have had no chance. No trucks could move.

Now for the bad news. A lot of the road is across the swamp land and the swamps are 1.5m lower than before the tsunami. The tsunami has trashed the vegetation on the flood plains so run-off will be unrestrained. These sections of road will flood badly.

Dont forget that the rivers are all full of debris and mud from the tsunami and that the 1.5m drop combined with heavy rain will cause huge expansion of the coastal flood plains. Evidence to date clear in BA and Meulaboh after each heavy rain.

Batavia and ships/boats are going to need to be here until the govt can build a real road at higher elevation and with good paving. That will take years because so much of the new road is actually using the old road. Most of that is now well below the elevation needed for an all weather coastal highway.

Please alert donors/govt agencies. I'm not an engineer so it might be worth sending an expert out to have a look first hand.

URGENT ORDER - LHO KRUET & PULAU RAYA

Pipe Fittings valves and glue to suit:

Brand Sn Biru AV pvc pipe
Size 115mm OD (external diameter)
Thickness 3mm

60 pce Straight couplings
12 pce 90deg bend
10 pce 15deg? 30deg? Or 45deg bends (or some of each)
5 pce Take-off “elbow” or “T” for 115mm pipe with 25mm take-off branch
2 ltrs pvc pipe glue
20 pce 25mm pvc addaptors to 25mm pipe thread
10 pce 25mm brass gate valves or plastic ball valves

Note: if T section with 25mm branch can not be found, a larger T or Y branch is OK. In that case we need pipe reducers down from 115mm to 25mm.

We want to tap into the main water line and provide the army camp with washing water at several points down the slope from the header box to the camp.

We need only 25mm pipe for these branch lines so any combination of fittings that achieves this is fine with us. We then need stop valves on these branch lines.

UPDATE PULAU RAYA - MARCH 11TH

Well out at sea we could just make out Pulau Raya in the haze when something flashed several times then held steady as a bright point of light. As the distance closed we could make out the source of the light with binoculars. Zinc roofing was being fixed on one of 5 new timber frame houses. Delighted we went ashore to meet Pak Isa, the Kepala Desa and to inspect the work. Set back about 150m from the beach, the house frames are now about 50% roofed with the material & tools supplied by Sam Schultz last visit.

Pak Isa explained that the women were not prepared to come back to live in tents. “they are in Lam No in tents now with shops nearby and a school, why would they want to move back into tents on Pulau Raya”.

Our volunteers got busy on a number of projects on the island. Dr Dave, Una & Devi fired up a new chainsaw and started on the huge job of clearing the island’s only road. To the astonishment of Pak Isa and his family, Una took over from Dave to give him a rest. “We have never heard of a woman using a chainsaw, where does madam come from?” Canada of course! A big thanks to Canadian Aid. Dave and Una will be a hard act to follow.

Fishing over the past week has seen mixed results. “Our nets are coming up full of broken dead coral” explained Isa. The waters are still turbid when the swell picks up due to the amount of erosion taking place due to the island being 1.5m lower than before the quake. The combination of debris, broken coral and turbid water makes inshore fishing less productive than in before the tsunami but Isa said one of their larger boats caught over 50 kg of prime reef fish and sold them in Lam No at good prices. Pak Isa presented us with a gift of 2kg of whitebait, 1.5kg of prawns and a large mud crab netted the night before.

I introduced Chris Russell to Pak Isa and we surveyed water sources for a couple of hours. After deciding on the best spot to dig a well, a group of 4 islanders were selected to help. Short of interpreters, I left Chris to fend for himself armed only with his handful of Bali tourist phrases. “Bagus” & “tidak bagus” seem to get the job done and the well digging went very smoothly. After 2 days of digging and lining we have a well that is capable of producing more than 1.5 tons of clear fresh water per day at the current flow rate. A tank will be installed on the hill overlooking the camp and water pumped up daily. Can anyone supply us with Solar pumps? We will start with a petrol powered pump but the long term solution is to use the suns energy to pump water all day, then gravity feed to the camp and later to permanent homes that will be built higher up the slopes.

Devi Crockford, Laurie Long, Lian and Una spent their second day kicking off activities at LHO KRUET’s makeshift tent school. After spreading the word, 26 enthusiastic children turned up under the watchful eyes of curious parents. The pens and paper were an instant hit and pretty soon the kids were busy working on drawings of events around them. 9 year old Zainudin produced this impression of the world after the tsunami. Note the blue OB chopper and the white ELM beach landing boat both featured. Flying buses will be imprinted for ever in the minds of Aceh’s kids. The problem in LHO KRUET is that the helos with vehicles slung below always seem to be flying somewhere else! At 5pm school moved to the beach for a game of soccer that featured at least 8 balls and about 40 players. Pictures tomorrow.