Soul Searching

i got here and thought as i travelled through the inland portion that the recovery was going well. things didn’t seem great but the town, melabeu, was vibrant and full of activity. there are still people living in thrown together shacks, most of them are trying to rebuild their houses from scratch.

the story was quite different as the jeep head towards the shore and ground zero. first, the road was unbelievably bad. any dirt road in the US would have been better. this was more akin to off roading. partially because the ground is saturated from the tsunami, partially because of the local geography, the road gets flooded and reflooded. that breaks it down into its current lunar landscape form. on the way to the clinic we passed ghost towns, the empty shells of buildings, homes completely levelled.

it looks as if an atomic bomb went off here. in fact more people died in this area than did when the A bomb was dropped on nagasaki. the total was somewhere around 200,000 to 250,000 people. incredible. 200 miles of coastline, flattened, washed away. i couldn’t help but think about the recent bout of hurricanes in the south of the US and compare them to this as i was on my way up here. as we were going through town, i thought they shared some similarity (although it’s almost a year later here).

that was i got to the shore area. the fact is that there still IS a new orleans, here it’s a year later and there’s almost nothing. enormous piles of money have poured in - UN, OXFAM, RC, lots of projects but the devastation was so total in its scope that this is what they’re left with, people living in tents on wet earth. many have water now, it was the first priority. now roads, electricity, schools, hospitals are the next ones.

as far as the geography goes the shore line is from 30 to 100 feet gone, washed away. to put that in perspective that would mean that half of miami beach would have evaporated. the water level 2 miles inland rose to 30 feet! utterly mind boggling. apparently the earthquake that sparked the tsunami moved the tectonic plates so much that sumatra is now 15″ lower, and the island off shore, nais, is 6′ lower (yes FEET). that would put most of nyc underwater too!

up to a half mile inland you can see cars that were carried by the tsunami nestled in the tops of trees. all the rivers flow a red-brown color as the fertile topsoil drains away.

one incredible story is that before the tsunami there a 3200 ton barge (that’s REALLY big!) that was off shore supplying power to the coastline up here. then the tsuanmi came which lifted it and dropped it 2 miles inland, right on top of a house! and it still works!

to compare it to new orleans, it would be as if three atomic bombs had been dropped on the city. totally unfathomable.

anyway, words can’t describe it. it is remarkable the way aid has poured in. i have met people that have been here since the first week. from grassroots organizations to multimillion dollar agencies. all people willing to help. it is heart warming.

i’ll write more on the aid agencies later…