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.