PC(USA) - Presbyterian Disaster Assistance - PDA - Photo Essay on PDA response to the earthquake in Nias, Indonesia

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance - Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)


	Situation report update — Nias earthquake Photo essay August 2005

	More than five months after the March 28, 2005 earthquake laid waste to much of the island of Nias’s urban areas, many residents of Gunung Sitoli, Manrehe and Sirombu are still living in tents in front of their homes, or in fields or mountainsides in cities and towns. People are still afraid, as aftershocks measuring up to 6.4 on the Richter scale continue to occur.		Nias residents living in a tent. Photo: Petteri Kokkonen, ACT

	When staff of the Action by Churches Together (ACT) Internataional coordination office in Medan recently visited the island (July 14), two small earthquakes rocked Sirombu, 76 kilometers south of the capital Gunung Sitoli. "Every time an earthquake like this happens, people imagine that there will be a larger earthquake and a tsunami. At night our whole family flees to the mountains with all the other families and sleeps in a tent because we are scared another earthquake will happen such as the last one," said A. Rizka Harefa, a resident and small business entrepreneur of Gunung Sitoli. Presbyterian Disaster Assistance and ACT members in Indonesia, Yayasan Emergency Unit (YEU) and Yayasan Tanggul Bencana di Indonesia (YTBI), have continued to assist the residents of Nias since the island was struck by the tsunami in December 2004. Funds for this support were taken from the generous response by Presbyterians to the tsunami disaster. Photos and text are by Jannerson Girsang, ACT International (Medan)


	Four months after an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.7 (Richter Scale) struck Nias Island, cleanup operations in Gunung Sitoli city are almost complete. However, debris and ruins can still be seen in many places. Even though economic activity has resumed, fears of aftershocks still affect many of the 900,000 residents on the island. The event still haunts
	many. Gunung Sitoli, the capital of Nias District, with 27,000 inhabitants, was the worst hit, with 400 people killed and 400 others injured.

	In some places, the clearing of debris is being done manually, using sledgehammers. The government announced the end of emergency status in Nias at the end of May. Many people are waiting for the government's "Master Plan" to rebuild the island, which is scheduled for release at the end of August, according to Willy Syahbandar, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency Branch Office in Nias.

	The gasoline crisis currently experienced throughout Indonesia has also had an impact on Nias the past few weeks. The only gas station in Gunung Sitoli is swamped with long lines of vehicles every day. "The price of gas now has reached 8,000 to 10,000 Rupiah (80 cents to $1.10 US) per liter and even then it is not always
	available," says Buyung Gulo, a bus driver on the Gunung Sitoli to Sirombu route. Normally, the price of gas is 2,400 Rupiah (20 cents US).

	Small stores selling essential goods and offering services (car repairs for instance) have started popping up all over. The food market is once again operating normally, with all the basic foodstuffs available. Ali Hia (20), a fishmonger at one of the markets in Gunung Sitoli, sells fish caught by local fishermen. "Finally we are able to run businesses and support our family’s economic situation," said Ali.

	The town of Sirombu, located on a beautiful shoreline along the western coast of Nias, now lies deserted. Hundreds of towns and shops that once constituted economic centers of Nias have been abandoned by residents after the March earthquake. Many people have fled to Tetesua, a town that is some
	three kilometers from Sirombu. Tetesua now has hundreds of new residents living in tents or in temporary shelters along the side of the road. Others have built dwellings in places farther inland from Sirombu.

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