Powell awed by Aceh ruin

Powell awed by Aceh ruin

Agencies, Banda Aceh

As his helicopter swooped low over a razed coast of tsunami-
ravaged Aceh, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell found himself
face-to-face with unimaginable destruction.

As a former soldier, Powell has been to war and witnessed the
destruction man can inflict on man, but right here, where over
94,000 died in the disaster, he saw the power of nature to wipe
man from the face of the earth.

"I have been in war and I have been through a number of
hurricanes, tornadoes and other relief operations, but I have
never seen anything like this," Powell said after a 30-minute
flight over parts of devastated Aceh.

During the tour, sitting at the open-door of a U.S. Seahawk
helicopter with President George W. Bush's brother Jeb Bush by
his side, Powell saw a flattened and broken landscape where once
there were city blocks of houses and thousands of families
leading busy lives.

"I cannot begin to imagine the horror that went through
families and all of the people who heard this noise coming and
then had their lives snuffed out by this wave," Powell told a
brief news conference in Banda Aceh before flying to Jakarta to
attend an emergency one-day tsunami aid conference on Thursday.

An obviously emotional Florida Governor Jeb Bush pledged the
U.S. government and its people would help tsunami victims in
Indonesia until their lives were rebuilt.

"Our hearts go out to the people, the families, who have lost
loved ones," said Bush.

As governor of Florida, Jeb Bush has had to deal with several
natural disasters, including last year when his state was hit
with four destructive hurricanes in a six-week period.

Before touring Banda Aceh's coastal region, Powell and his
delegation met with foreign minister Hassan Wirayuda and
inspected American and international relief efforts in Phuket,
where thousands died in shattered beach resorts popular with
Western tourists.

Powell told reporters in Jakarta on Tuesday night he was
confident his country's relief efforts would boost its battered
image around the globe after a torrid few years that have been
focused on the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

"I think it does give to the Muslim world and the rest of the
world an opportunity to see American generosity, American values
in action," he told a joint news conference with foreign minister
Hassan Wirayuda.

The United States has promised US$350 million in aid as part
of a global $2.3 billion relief effort, the biggest humanitarian
operation since World War II.

He also promised Washington would send more helicopters -- the
workhorses most needed by aid groups to deliver medicine, food
and clean water to isolated survivors.