JANUARY 21ST UPDATE

On the 19th, we got a chance to speak further with Dr. Kerry Sieh, and his information is just astonishing. Kerry, an American geologist, came into the hotel to visit and say thanks for delivering the helicopter fuel out to them last week. He said they couldn’t have gone on without it and it was huge that we did it for them. Yeah!! We get stoked when we hear feedback like that.

As we mentioned in previous updates, Dr. Kerry has been checking his instruments placed on the islands for the last 2 weeks, which register earth movements and activity in its tectonic plates. While at the hotel, he showed us his latest photos and reports.

In the northwest point of Simeulue, there is brand new land. The quake caused the earth to rise so the outer islands and northwest Simeulue mainland are now much larger. Northwest Simeulue is now 1.5 meters higher, which obviously increases the total surface area of the island. The water line has increased approximately 300 - 400 meters from where the beach used to be. Imagine the magnitude of this across the entire island.

Dr. Kerry reports that the earthquake was a result of approximately 200 years of gradual sinking of the plate. When it popped back up, it caused the tsunami. The land rose before the tsunami hit. If it had not risen as much as it did, the tsunami would have been much bigger. The rising of the reef and exposure of so much more land made the tsunami weaker (weaker than it could’ve been anyway) when it hit the villages.

The effects are enormous. Swamps that were just beyond the beach are now much further inland because of the uplifting, and they are beginning to dry out. One coral head measuring 2 meters in diameter, and weighing more than a ton, was flipped completely over by the tsunami. The northeast section of Simeulue has was uplifted as well, but not as significantly as the northwest side, experiencing approximately 25 cm of uplifting.

In Nias, Kerry documented a watermark on a mosque, which was 4.2 meters (13.8 feet) above the ground. There are trees about 100 meters off the coast of Sirombu (west side of Nias) growing out of the water. Many are live coconut trees that will die soon because of the salt water, but as of now they look quite crazy just growing out there. Kerry thinks this might be a result of the earth kind of liquefying and sliding into the sea. He is not sure about this, but he cannot think of any other reason.

Sometimes we are not able to communicate Kerry’s findings clearly as well as he can, as it is very technical stuff. J But you can check out his site at http://www.tectonics.caltech.edu/sumatra (if it prompts you for a username and password), you can just click Cancel to get through to the site). More specifically, you can check Kerry’s direct findings in his online journal here: http://today.caltech.edu/today/story-display.tcl?story%5fid=5903.

On the 20th, Scuzz called Christina from the field, informing her he began negotiations with SurfAid and AusAid to fund a relief effort in Simeulue, which he will organize. Within a couple of hours, Christina emailed me back informing me that Scuzz secured what he was hoping for: Rp. 750,000,00 (approximately US$ 85,000) to fund his Simeulue project. SurfAid was the first to step up with the funding, and AusAid should be coming along to jump in as well soon. Thank you SO MUCH to everyone involved in making this happen. We cannot believe it.

Scuzz’s project involves loading 5 cargo boats in Sibolga (northwest coast of Sumatra) with supplies to travel to the villages of northern Simeulue, which experienced absolute destruction. The primary villages he is focusing on immediately are in the Ketchamatan and Alasan area. (Please cut us a little slack on the spellings might be wrong, as every chart or every map we look at has a different spelling J ).

Scuzz is hoping to get 2 cargo boats loaded on Sat, 2/1, one on Sunday 2/2, and 2 on Monday 2/3. These boats will carry building supplies, medicine and general relief aid to these areas closest to the epicenter of the earthquake. The villagers themselves in these areas were not as affected as they could have been, as village elders apparently passed down stories of the last tsunami in 1907. They all knew to run. But structurally, Scuzz says that easily 90% of 8 small villages is gone – just completely demolished. The people ran when they felt the earthquake and were spared, but now they live in small houses they have pieced together from bits of debris.

There are 4,266 people in these 8 villages, totally 896 families that are left with virtually nothing. These are the statistics given to Scuzz by the Indonesian military in the area. Communication to and from Padang is not easy, and can only be done via satellite phone. Thus, any storms or high winds make it impossible to hear anything Scuzz says, but he is doing his best to get aid up there. Matt George, Bill Sharp and crew are the ones that took Alyssa (Chris' sister) and Adam Kobayashi (one of our companies surf charter guides) up to these areas. They were some of the first ones on sight, and Alyssa’s' reports are what prompted Chris' second trip out.

Here are some of Scuzz’s reports from this morning from the northwest area of Simeulue:

Ugung Pandang: 70 families and 160 people displaced, 12 houses gone, and 50 damaged. Villagers stayed in the jungle 4 - 8 days after the tsunami.

Lewa: 86 families and 890 people displaced, 10 houses completely gone, and150 severely damaged. Approximately 5% of the villagers are sick, but not disaster related. These people are asking for roofing materials for their school before anything else

Nasra: 45 families and 150 people displaced, 10 people injured in the tsunami, 25 houses gone, 40 houses severely damaged, 10 fishing boats destroyed.

All villages have come to are asking for coffee, sugar, fruit and vegetables, seeds to start growing these things again, kerosene, fuel, kitchen things, building materials, mosquito nets, a megaphone to communicate to a lot of people at once, and lamp oil. They have no light and pretty much walk around blindly at night. Many villages have used wood that used to be their homes to build fires to cook on. They are homeless and are living day to day, but somehow they manage to smile and laugh. It’s just amazing. It’s hard to imagine the western world could begin to recover from something of this magnitude, especially this quickly. These people are simply just happy island people that face hardships daily we cannot even comprehend. Imagine trying to re-build 8 small cities in America or Australia: $85,000 couldn’t even begin to do it, but it IS possible here.

Once again, thank you all so very very much. We could not be more grateful to the surfing community here in Padang and around the world, and to all our family and friends that have done so much to make this relief aid effort a success. The fundraisers and emails have really been inspiring, and are truly getting to the right places (Mike Vann - you are a champion).

Terimah Kasih!!

Last minute update!!:

This a list from an email I got from Christina regarding what Scuzz is buying to stock boats. It is also some of the things we have been constantly asked to bring out throughout this effort. Hopefully you’ll find it interesting/informative, and possibly spark some ideas for how you can help. In Australia, there is a company called Tools 4 Tsunami (www.tools4tsunami.org) that helps collect some of these. If you can find an organization in your area that may help deliver some of these items to Padang, please feel free to contact us:

FOOD:
Canned fish (tuna, mackerel, sardines), canned vegetables, canned fruit, rice, noodles, sugar, coffee, tea, spices (bumbu), baby powdered milk, toddler powdered milk

BUILDING MATERIALS
Hammers, nails, wood planers, shovels, wheelbarrows, chisels, mallets, machetes, saws, rope, tarps, hatchets, 2-man saws, roofing sheeting, roofing nails, thatched roofing, cement, sealant (caulking material)

KITCHEN AND COOKING STUFF
Water purification machines, plates, cups, silverware, woks, pans, covered pots, spatulas, big spoons, kitchen knives, bowls, water pitchers, ladles, can openers

VILLAGE SUSTAINACE NEEDS
Bensin, solar, 2 stroke oil, kerosene, small generators, canoes, oil lamps, spare parts for oil lamps, mosquito nets, mats to sleep on, pillows, sheets, blankets, cloth for doors and curtains, kapok mattresses, all sized plastic covered containers, fishing lines, hooks, nets, hand-held nets

HYGEINE NEEDS/MEDS
Cream washing detergent, soap, shampoo, toothbrushes, toothpaste, hairbrushes, combs, sarongs, feminine napkins, sewing needles, thread, buttons, zippers, mosquito repellant, mosquito coils, Band-Aids, gauze, Panadol, Betadine, vitamin C, medications and vitamins that are simple enough that you don’t need a doctor to explain their dosage/usage

EDUCATION/ENTERTAINMENT
Pencils, erasers, notebooks, pencil sharpeners, pens, rulers, chalk, chalkboards, colored pencils, coloring books, crayons, scissors, calendars, material for school uniforms, kites, dolls, soccer balls

MISC.
A megaphone, cigarettes, matches, beetlenut

This is pretty much what they lost, and what they are asking for.