Ten foreign tourists stranded in Sabang

Ten foreign tourists stranded in Sabang

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Ten foreign tourists have been found alive in Sabang, the main
town of Weh island off Aceh that was severely hit by tsunami last
Sunday, Antara reported.

The tourists from Britain, Canada, Japan, the Netherlands and
Switzerland had reported their presence on the island to local
military authorities and had asked to be transported out of the
area.

"We came to Sabang as tourists," the news agency quoted a
Canadian, identified only as Debbi, as saying on Friday. She was
staying at the beach resort of Gapang in Sabang.

Earlier this week, British tourist Al Howard and his French
girlfriend Sophie Pasquier managed to reach safety from Weh
Island, after witnessing the almost total obliteration of the
Gapang resort.

Debbi said she went to the island to surf.

Another tourist, identified only as Hal, said he was surfing
when the tidal wave struck the resort area that morning.

"We suddenly saw huge waves around 10 meters tall coming to
the shore. We ran for our lives," Hal, from Britain, recalled.

He said he and the other nine foreign tourists, who were not
hurt, received food and water from local residents in the
aftermath of the disaster.

The tourists had sought help from the local disaster
mitigation agency at the office of the Sabang mayor and had asked
to be taken to Medan in North Sumatra.

Responding to the tourists' request, the commander of Maimun
Saleh air base in Sabang, Lt. Col. Hari Widodo, said he was
preparing a Hercules transport plane to take them to Medan.

Weh Island is one of the closest points to the epicenter of
Sunday's quake that generated the tsunami that wrought havoc in
countries of the Indian Ocean.

Economic activities had not fully resumed in Sabang, with only
a few grocers selling basic needs being seen. The town has
suffered from a power blackout since the disaster took place.