Category Archives: Sumatra quake

CRS’ emergency response team for the West Sumatra earthquake is already working as a well-oiled machine. Photo by Debbie DeVoe/CRS

Every morning around 7:30, CRS’ emergency response team in Padang, Indonesia, gathers around their one conference table. The team—which two weeks after the quake is now 25 strong—includes CRS Indonesia staff, CRS employees from around the world who have come in on temporary assignments, and newly rehired staff who assisted CRS with our tsunami response in Aceh. Continue reading →

In the midst of disaster, this resilient Indonesian family is still finding reasons to laugh and be thankful for their lives

Irwan Etendi’s family had never experienced anything like the earthquake that hit West Sumatra, Indonesia, on September 30.

“We were all inside when we felt the shaking,” he says. “We all ran out—even my father-in-law who hadn’t finished his [daily] prayers.”

The extended family of 22 members lives on a large compound in five cement block houses. Now one is a heap of pink concrete rubble. The other four have crumbled walls, extensive cracks and mounds of rubble strewn across the floors.
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Aid workers under the various umbrellas of Caritas Internationalis including Caritas Germanys' Fabien Tritschler gather for logistics meetings at a makeshift co-ordination centre in Padang, West Sumatra to deliver much needed aid to people who have lost thier homes in the earthquake near Padang City, Indonesia. Photograph by James Alcock/Caritas Internationalis (c) 2009.

Here in Padang, I’m sitting with a mixed team of over 30 people from all over the world and around Indonesia who work for various Caritas entities from different countries (CRS is part of that international network of Catholic charities devoted to reducing poverty and campaigning for social justice). We are sitting in a hot cinder block building which I understand is a Sunday School building under normal circumstances. Off on one side, roasting spices make us cough as some women are constantly cooking to feed the crowd. The group meets every night at 9:30 p.m. to review the day’s activities: traveling to distant villages to see how the earthquake affected them, receiving shipments of tarps, or distributing hygiene kits to affected villages. Most work past midnight, and begin again early the next day.
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Aid workers of Caritas Internationalis gather at Padang Airport as an aircraft arrives with aid relief in the form of hundreds of tents for displaced Sumatran villagers following last weeks devostasting earthquake near Padang City, Indonesia. Photograph by James Alcock/Caritas Internationalis (c) 2009.

Fabian Tritschler is nervous. A plane load of tents for the survivors of the Sumatra quake is due in at 5.30, but he and the Caritas team have been up all night sorting out landing permission.
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Scenes of destruction at the hospital. Photo By James Alcock/Caritas

By Tim O’Connor, Caritas Australia

By Tim O’Connor, Caritas Australia

Caitas Fr. Laruffa Aldo has been living in Padang now for 52 years. Although originally from Italy, he now says, “I’m an Indonesian”.

“This hospital started as just a one room clinic”, he said. It is a remarkable achievement seeing the current sprawling three level building that until last week’s earthquake could hold up to 150 people. It had an additional emergency clinic, intensive care unit and all the facilities of a modern hospital.

On 30 September, Fr Aldo’s work was shattered. The hospital building now has been left a twisted and mangled shell by the earthquake. Continue reading →

Centre at St Francis of Assisi in Padang Baru distributes Caritas aid. Photo by James Alcock/Caritas

By Tim O’Connor, Caritas Australia

The centre at St Francis of Assisi in Padang Baru is refilling with aid as fast as it can be distributed. Fr. Agus is involved in coordinating the team of 25 volunteers here who are warehousing and distributing to needy families.

“The aid is coming from the community as donations. Water, noodles, tarpaulins, rice, biscuits, sarongs, all manner of things which people are in desperate need of,” said Fr Agus. “We have already distributed 3.5 tonnes of rice in this Parish and a total of 19.5 tonnes across the whole of Padang.” Continue reading →

Scenes of the makeshift hospital attached to the Yos Sudarso Catholic Hospital which is running beyond full capacity following last weeks devastating earthquake. Photo by James Alcock/Caritas

By Tim O’Connor, Caritas Australia

Helen is a nurse at the Yos Sudarso Catholic Hospital. While taking a short break from her grueling workload, she stopped to talk to the Caritas communications team.

She said, “It is mainly earthquake victims we are treating here. A lot of people have been badly injured, the majority thankfully are fairly minor and they are treated at our polyclinic which we have established at the front of the property.

“We are seeing lots of cuts, abrasions and fractures which we can treat fairly quickly. Although the hospital is badly damaged, we were fortunate in that the x-ray and operating rooms are still able to function as normal.”
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Volunteers at the St Francis of Assisi Parish,including Sister Camela (middle) and Paukus (far left) Sumiami (next left) and Sri Wahyuni attend to cooking duties for the staff and patients of the Yos Sudarso Catholic Hospital which is running beyond full capacity following last weeks devastating earthquake. Photograph by James Alcock/Caritas (c) 2009.

By Tim O’Connor, Caritas Australia

In Padang, Caritas local parish partners are working hard to keep the hospital running. We visited Padang Baru Parish where teams of 25-30 volunteers per shift are cooking food for the hospital patients and staff and assisting those in their own local community with aid distributions.
Lia, who speaks fluent English from her education in Australia, has traveled here from her home in Jakarta, to lend assistance. As she leads us into the buzzing kitchen the volunteers are busily working in three main groups.
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