Part of the city of Meulaboh pre-tsunami
The same part of Meulaboh post-tsunami
I found this picture on the internet and am 90% sure that the big house with a red roof right above the airman's shoulder is the house I stayed at during my week in Meulaboh. It's about a mile or so from the beach and its construction was almost finished when the tsunami came. It held up under the wave and floods, and was soon after finished off and used as a home to house NGO workers.
An "on the ground" view of the tsunami destruction soon afterwards. Three years later, most of the city has been rebuilt, and yet rubble and houseless foundations still dot the landscape as a reminder of the magnitude of destruction.HERE IS A NEWS ARTICLE WRITTEN SOON AFTER THE TSUNAMI:
"The large town of Meulaboh, which had a population of 40,000, has been almost completely levelled. A Sydney Morning Herald journalist who flew over Meulaboh described the scene. “[I]t looks like the people of Meulaboh never got the chance to run. Picture the bombed Hiroshima—that’s what it looks like ... Meulaboh had not received any outside help or emergency supplies such as medicine, food or water ... We could see tiny figures walking among the debris. They must have been desperate for food and water”.
A police officer who left Meulaboh on Tuesday morning told Agence France-Presse that when he left “they only had enough food for a day. I told my men to try to sustain themselves by eating coconuts, but they will only last for another day. I saw residents in the area scavenging for dirty rice on the ground.” Sea water, debris, corpses and sewerage have contaminated drinking water in virtually every affected area.
According to a military spokesman, the first six tonnes of supplies arrived in the town via two naval vessels on Thursday—five days after the tsunami hit. A Sydney Morning Herald reporter who reached Meulaboh yesterday described the suffering as “unimaginable”. Most of the survivors had received no food, drinking water, medicines or outside help and were desperate. Yuda Suria, a father of two, begged: “Please help me. Please. We have had no rice or water for two days. How can we live?”
Estimates of the number killed in the town vary from 10,000 to 20,000. If the surrounding district is included, the figure could be 40,000. As of Thursday, many areas had yet to be reached, including islands off the west coast. A police officer who reached Meulaboh on Wednesday reported that only several hundred of the 6,000-strong fishing community of Calang survived. After a helicopter tour, provincial military commander Major-General Endang Suwarya said 75 percent of the west coast was destroyed and whole communities wiped out."
