U.S. help a big boost in Aceh aid distribution<\/p>\n
Associated Press, Kuede Teunom, Aceh<\/p>\n
An outpouring of global aid began trickling into Indonesia's
\nstricken villages on Sunday, as bulldozers cleared debris-
\ncluttered roads and American helicopters shuttled supplies to
\ndesperate victims of Asia's tsunami disaster.<\/p>\n
Officials across the Indian Ocean region said bottlenecks that
\nhave left boxes of supplies in warehouses with insufficient
\ntransport were easing. Aid workers in Indonesia, the nation
\nhardest hit, said critical supplies were finally reaching inland
\nvillages that needed them most.<\/p>\n
A big boost for aid distribution in Indonesia came with the
\narrival on Saturday of the American aircraft carrier USS Abraham
\nLincoln.<\/p>\n
\"The need is desperate. There is nothing left to speak of,\"
\nsaid Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Vorce as the U.S. relief operation went into
\nits second day with helicopters shuttling between the provincial
\ncapital of Banda Aceh and devastated coastal villages on Sumatra.<\/p>\n
The giant aircraft carrier and four other U.S. Navy vessels,
\ncrewed by more than 6,500 sailors and Marines, moved into
\nposition on Saturday off Indonesia to begin one of the largest
\nU.S. military operations in Southern Asia since the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n
From a low-flying helicopter, the scene for some 110
\nkilometers down the shoreline from the provincial capital of
\nBanda Aceh was that of a veritable skeleton coast.<\/p>\n
One after another, communities well-rooted for generations had
\nbeen obliterated in moments. Bleached concrete bases were all
\nthat remained of most substantial structures. Nothing was visible
\nof flimsier village houses except for some corrugated iron roofs
\ncrumpled up like paper.<\/p>\n
Only a few mosques remained intact, surrounded by bare
\nwastelands. Thousands of emerald green rice paddies had been
\npeeled away, replaced by fetid swamps, mud, mangled tree trunks
\nand sea slime.<\/p>\n
The thundering wall of water, powered by a 9.0-magnitude
\nearthquake centered not far off the coast, pounded through the
\ntowns and paddies and even up hillsides, surging through inlets
\ndeep into the interior.<\/p>\n
When a helicopter landed at Kuede Teunom, a town 110
\nkilometers southeast of Banda Aceh, several hundred people waited
\nanxiously for relays of Indonesian soldiers to quickly unload
\ncrates of biscuits and water. The troops, rifles slung across
\ntheir backs, had moved in to prevent mobs like those which rushed
\nthe helicopters on Saturday.<\/p>\n
About 8,000 people, from a population of 18,000, were killed
\nin the town, Indonesian journalist Alfinn Hanzah estimated, and
\nthe survivors urgently needed rice, medicine and gasoline.
\nHanzah, from the Pena Indonesian News Service, had been in the
\ntown for two days.<\/p>\n
In the shattered Sumatran fishing village of Meulaboh, aid
\nworkers set up a refugee camp to distribute boxes of supplies.
\nFive American doctors flew to decimated village from the USS
\nShoup, as four Indonesian frigates filled with aid docked
\noffshore.<\/p>\n
In Banda Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra and a main
\ndelivery point for aid, relief centers operated out of tents and
\npassed out boxes of supplies to orderly crowds. Truck convoys
\ndelivered goods in steady streams, as planes constantly unloaded
\naid at the Banda Aceh airport.<\/p>\n
\"I'm happy to report that we are not having too many
\ndifficulties with our distribution,\" said Heather Hill, a
\nspokeswoman for the World Food Program, which passed out 50 tons
\nof rice and eight tons of biscuits and dried noodles in Aceh
\nprovince on their first day of operation on Saturday.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/us-help-a-big-boost-in-aceh-aid-distribution-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}