Meulaboh, Calang in West Acah decimated
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
More than 8,000 people are confirmed dead in Meulaboh in West Aceh and the Aceh Jaya town of Calang and other places along a stretch of the western coastline of Aceh as the Navy reached the area on Wednesday to distribute food and water.
The total death toll from Sunday's tsunamis has surpassed 45,000, but the figure could be much higher as information trickles in from the western coastline where there had been virtually no contact until Wednesday.
The highest death toll from the western coastline will likely come from Calang and Meulaboh, where about 80 percent of the town has been totally destroyed.
Head of the disaster management team at the Ministry of Social Services Purnomo Sidik said that initial death toll reports for the town were expected to be much higher than 10,000 people.
"Judging from the aerial shots and the extent of the visible damage, I estimate that the death toll there is much more than 10,000," Purnomo said.
Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for Indonesia, Michael Elmquist, gave a worse prediction saying that Meulaboh might have had 40,000 deaths.
"It's a guess based on the relation between the numbers we have so far and our experience from other earthquake disasters," Elmquist was quoted by Reuters as saying.
Meanwhile, Amrun Daulay, director general for social assistance and security at the Ministry of Social Affairs, told Agence France-Presse that approximately 20,000 people had been killed in Aceh Jaya district alone, with some 5,000 of them from the district town of Calang.
Meanwhile, the first warship dispatched by the Navy to Meulaboh arrived on Wednesday, the first aid to reach the town so far as land access and communications have been cut off.
According to the chief security minister Widodo Adi Sutjipto, the soldiers and rescue teams found at least 3,400 dead during their visit to Meulaboh.
The warship dropped food such as bread, biscuits and instant noodles and bottled drinking water and then returned to its base further down the coast of Sumatra to restock.
Iskandar Muda military commander in Aceh Maj. Gen. Endang Suwarya told Antara that in addition to sending the warship, the military had sent military airplanes to Meulaboh to drop food supplies from the air since the town's airport cannot be used.
"The roads are blocked, the bridges between Banda Aceh and Meulaboh have collapsed, the airport cannot be used, therefore, the most effective way is to drop supplies from the air," Endang said.
According to a local police chief Rilo Pambudi, survivors in Meulaboh had looted stores in their desperation to find food in what remained of the town.
Only 20 percent of the town buildings were left standing with the rest leveled to the ground or filled with mud.
Hadi Kuswoyo of the Indonesian Red Cross said that of the 800 total aid workers on the ground in Aceh some would try to reach the western area but warned that they would be able to do little to alleviate conditions there.
Poor communication and the threat of widespread outbreaks of disease such as respiratory diseases and dengue fever and diarrhea would hamper rescue efforts.
To help prevent the spread of disease, the West Java health agency has sent eight doctors to the town and are preparing to send another 30 doctors and several nurses.