Acehnese scramble in search of loved ones

Acehnese scramble in search of loved ones

Agencies/Jakarta/Padang

"I'm tired. I'm looking for my father. Please help me," wailed
Maimori, 22, a Banda Aceh resident, quoted as saying by Reuters
on Monday. Maimori said she had spoken to her father, a fish
seller, early on Sunday morning before he left for the market in
Banda Aceh.

Maimori was not alone in her grief. Thousands of people across
Aceh were hoping and praying for the recovery of their loved ones
on Monday, with the province's capital of Banda Aceh the nation's
worst-hit area.

A reporter for Jakarta's Metro TV station said tidal waves
unleashed by the quake had surged into the city, filling streets
with up to four meters of water as the earth rocked for five
minutes.

Destruction was also brought to the tiny town of Paton Labu,
close to Bireuen regency on Aceh's northern coast. "It was as if
God had unleashed his anger on the people," said Haji Ali, a
Paton Labu resident, quoted as saying by AFP.

The giant waves reached as far as the Mentawai Islands in West
Sumatra, over 1,000 kilometers from the epicenter of the
earthquake in Aceh's Meulaboh waters.

Horas Marohatta Tasilippet, 35, a resident of the tiny island
of Pagai Utara, recalled that huge waves had swept away houses
hundreds of meters inland. "The residents scrambled to reach
higher ground," Horas told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

No fatalities were reported on Pagai Utara.

Along Aceh's coastline, flimsy straw-roofed houses lay crushed
or tossed aside while vehicles were scattered in rivers and
ditches.

Bloodied corpses covered by plastic sheets lay rotting on the
ground at an Indonesian Red Cross office in Lambaro on the
northern outskirts of Banda Aceh.

Residents of Lhokseumawe city on the northern coast of Aceh
were struggling on Monday to cope with the devastation.

"It smells so bad ... The human bodies are mixed in with dead
animals like dogs, fish, cats and goats," marine Col. Buyung
Lelana, the head of an evacuation team in Lhokseumawe, told
Reuters by telephone.

In East Nusa Tenggara, the families of Indonesian Military
(TNI) officers assigned to the war-torn province were waiting for
reports from the area.

Chief of Wirasakti Military Command in East Nusa Tenggara Col.
Moeswarno Moesanip said five soldiers had died when giant waves
hit Pidie seaport in Lhokseumawe, where the TNI is battling the
Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

"One of the five was assigned to Aceh last year, when his wife
was pregnant. The baby was born when he was in Lhokseumawe and
now, after the disaster, he will never see the face of his
father," said Moeswarno, quoted as saying by Antara news agency.