Post-disaster Nias: Starting life anew

Post-disaster Nias: Starting life anew

By Kasparman

NIAS, North Sumatra (JP): Most people were sound asleep in the
village of Helezalulu on Nias island, North Sumatra, when a flood
swept mercilessly through the settlement.

The tranquility of that fateful night, darkened by a black-
out, transformed instantaneously into utter disarray. Amid
shrieks of the ill-fated villagers, the Lahusa district hamlet
was wrecked by floodwater coming from a normally calm river, with
family members and relatives separated from one another.

A 14-year-old girl looked weary, sitting with her head
reclining on the back of a chair, her hand wiping tears from her
cheeks. "Mom," she whimpered repeatedly. Her feet began to
develop a rash, indicating the onset of measles.

"Lawe Hulu," she said when The Jakarta Post asked her name on
a dim Friday of Aug. 10. "My mom and little brother were washed
away, I don't know where they are now. Please help me find them,"
she begged those around her.

Then she gazed at a confused ten-year-old called Karles Hulu,
her younger brother. When the flood rushed through her home,
neighbors found Karles swept onto a garbage heap 200 meters away.

The calamity, which hit the village some 100 km from the city
of Gunung Sitoli, brought tragedy to the life of this young girl.
Her mother, Uyati Nduru, 40, whom she had relied on for support,
was drowned as the flood inundated the village. Firdaus Hulu, 6,
Lawe's youngest brother, was also lost. The search and rescue
team, which evacuated disaster victims has so far failed to
discover either of them.

With their house on the banks of Masio River totally ravaged,
Lawe and Karles are now under the care of their uncle. Their
father, whom they have waited for a long time, has not returned
home from Pekanbaru, Riau.

"Dad went to Pekanbaru several months ago to seek a job," she
said, sobbing. Meanwhile, disaster relief officers of Lahusa
district were distributing food, clothes and medicine.

"Help us, sir, we're starving, we'll be dead without aid," she
insisted. But her hope wasn't fulfilled. The relief personnel
were not prepared to provide aid in full. Allocations were doled
out on that day to survivors in the form of compensation for dead
victims worth Rp 200,000 per person, as well as rice rations and
a daily allowance of Rp 1,500 per family for 14 days.

Lawe is not the only villager to have lost loved ones. A
middle-aged man was repairing his wrecked two-story house,
apparently without regard to his surroundings. "That guy lost his
wife and child," said Fati Zamuala Laia, a local resident, who
also mentioned the victim's name, Nehe Gombowo Harepa.

When the flood was imminent, Nehe Gombowo and the whole family
were on the upper story. At the end of July, it was raining at 10
p.m., a power failure ensued half an hour later. Nehe grew
anxious, but the rest of the family were too sleepy to stay up.

The father of six kept watching the swelling river with the
help of his flashlight. As his anxiety grew, a rumble was heard,
accompanied by a very rapid surge of floodwater. Panic stricken,
Nehe rushed downstairs to wake his family up, only to be
overwhelmed by the sudden burst of floodwater.

It was in that dark night that his wife, Bulujumasi Baene, 28,
his son Arjun, 4, mother-in-law Nurisa Hulu, 55 and a niece,
Sortamegloria, 3.5, were all swallowed by the waves. "I could do
nothing to save them but pray, while keeping hold of my five
other children," he said, almost whispering.

Masio River originates on a mountainside located in the
district of Gomo. This river, meeting various daily needs and
supplying clean drinking water, had become part of the life of
local inhabitants.

"We have never imagined such a neighborly stream would one day
inflict such a great misfortune," remarked Lahusa district head
Yan Utama Putra Lase.

Lahusa suffered the worst impact of the catastrophe, which
took place on July 31. Based on initial records, nine villages
were submerged, 33 people killed and 34 missing, with 155 houses
badly damaged and 458 locals deprived of shelter.

Recent data obtained by the Post from the Nias disaster
control coordinating unit in Gunung Sitoli revealed that the
death toll reached 108 while 169 people were missing and four
others severely injured. The flood also destroyed 515 houses,
three churches, 13 primary schools, four bridges, 14 village
halls, a rural polyclinic and 250 hectares of paddy fields, with
material losses estimated at Rp 1.5 billion.

The difficult access to the flood-stricken areas and the use
of radio as the only means of reporting local conditions have led
to unstable data on the island's disaster victims. "We ourselves
are also confused and are still seeking accurate figures,"
admitted F. Halawa, Nias' disaster relief coordinator. It takes
six hours by car to cover the distance of only 100 km from the
urban center owing to damaged roads.

Asked about mass burial sites, the local community leader gave
a negative reply. "No mass graves here," retorted Hendrik Gulo.
He explained that in Nias, the prevailing custom must never be
abandoned. If anybody dies, a funeral ceremony must be followed
by inviting all villagers and slaughtering pigs. One is offered
when the corpse is laid in state and another after burial. An
adult needs two pigs, a community chief four pigs and a king 12
to 14 worth Rp 1 million each, because the king's child is to be
named his successor.

Unless this custom is observed, the families left behind will
be subject to the humiliation of local people. They use a Nias
saying to jeer, "Leni ada pangusi namau" (you can't afford to
give a ritual even for your own father). "The words will trigger
a brawl because an offended native of Nias may choose to kill, so
that the corpse means a lot to a family," added Hendrik.

Apart from that, the disaster has changed the lives of the
Nias people. They have lost not only their belongings, families
and dwellings but also their livelihood, because all their rice
fields and farm land has been devastated. They can expect nothing
other than the sincere aid and helping hand of strangers. They
are now indeed living in abject poverty.