‘Something we have never seen before’

South African rescue workers said on Wednesday they have never before witnessed such devastation as they saw while performing relief work in Indonesia.

Six Global Relief workers arrived back in South Africa from Indonesia on Wednesday.

Speaking at a press conference at the Johannesburg International airport, the organisation’s chief executive, Murray Louw, said the devastation the December 26 tsunami had caused was overwhelming.

The team of trained psychological trauma interveners, medical, engineering and search-and rescue-personnel spent almost two weeks in Meulaboh, in the province of Aceh on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

Said Louw: “It’s frightening to think what these people were thinking when they saw the big wave coming.”

He said the images in the media do not show the extent of the devastation.

Asked if he would go back to Indonesia, he said without hesitating that he would.

Louw said Global Relief volunteers have worked on earthquake relief since 1999 in countries such as Turkey, India, Algeria and Iran, but “what we have seen in Indonesia is something we have never seen before”.

Although there were many doctors, there was a shortage of nurses. There were about 7 000 survivors in the town of Meulaboh, of whom 6 000 were patients. Most patients were being treated for gangrene and tetanus.

The team was the first relief group to reach the remote inland village of Kuala Beh, where several survivors needed urgent medical treatment.

Louw said this catastrophe has not only affected south-east Asia but the rest of the world too.

He said he is happy see that governments and organisations are seeing as urgent the need for trauma intervention.

Louw said the trauma of such a disaster could have serious effects later if survivors do not receive counselling.

“If the survivors are not helped to deal with their emotional pain, they often suffer post-traumatic stress disorder.

“Much of the focus is on rescuing survivors from the rubble, or uncovering bodies from debris … What about the impact on the family members of the deceased?”

More South Africans safe

Seventy-six South Africans remained unaccounted for by Wednesday afternoon following the December 26 Asian tsunamis, the Department of Foreign Affairs said in Pretoria.

The figure dropped from more than 300 at the weekend as people who had been in the area at the time of the disaster alerted the department that they are unharmed.

People listed as unaccounted for are believed to have been in the area when the giant waves struck, and have not been traced since. They are not considered officially missing.

The number of people missing, feared dead, remained at five by Wednesday, a spokesperson at the department’s operations centre said.

Ten South Africans are confirmed to have died in Thailand.

The World Health Organisation (WHO), meanwhile, said there is an increasingly urgent need to assess the health needs of people in Aceh, Indonesia, who have not been reached by any “systematic outside assistance”.

“It is clear from what is known about these communities that many people have untreated injuries sustained in the original tsunami,” it said in a statement.

“Many people are also still living without regular access to their basic needs of clean water, food and shelter. Sporadic relief has reached some of these people but their basic needs have not been taken care of in a systematic way.”

The WHO said there is an ongoing risk in affected areas from diarrhoea and other water-borne diseases as well as respiratory infections.

“There is also concern over a potential increase in the number of cases of mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue fever and malaria,” the organisation said. — Sapa

Related articles