When the Tsunami struck without warning the morning of December 26, 2004, Chris Gentry, AsiaWorks Founder and Chairman, along with most of the world, was dumb struck with grief and the feeling of helplessness. That didn’t last long. That day, he and a small group of other people who lived in Bali made the decision to go to Aceh, Indonesia, one of the most devastated areas in South Asia. Hiring a boat and taking supplies on board critical to aid the survivors, the group eventually found its way to a remote village that had no access to the outside world, except by sea. He spent the next 2 weeks there with a relief team working long days doing whatever he could for the survivors Here is what he said about his journey and the agony he found in the village of Calang.
		Click here to view the video on the initial relief efforts (6559K) in Realplayer format. Download the free Realplayer for Mac or Windows at http://www.real.com

Immediately after hearing about the disaster, Chris didn’t think long. He knew he had to go. That day he joined a local group from Bali that raised funds, hired a boat and set out on a personal disaster relief effort.

As they moved north by boat, Chris and his crew learned that Banda, Aceh still had roads in so supplies could reach that city quickly. The early reports said that Calang, a town of about 14,000, had been “vaporised”. All the roads and bridges to that village had been washed away and it was completely cut off. So they went to Calang.

Nearing the town’s entrance, they measured the height of the waves from its markings on the shore and estimated that they must have been over 30 meters/100 feet high. They learned there were seven waves in all. Nature’s fury carried the whole village away. Approximately 2,000 people survived. There were very few old people. There were very few babies. There were very few injured. The people were simply alive or dead. Chris said that the town was just obliterated, nothing left but a wasteland. The waves had raged across the land for seven kilometers inland sweeping away everything.

The wall of water took everything with it. Deaths and devastation were everywhere. All the houses were gone and the wells were contaminated with salt water, mud and bodies. There were dead people in trees and on the beaches but most were washed out to sea. Everything had disappeared. No houses, no animals, no people; just mud, debris, and broken coconut trees snapped off like twigs.

On the first day, they delivered their aid packages to starving villagers. “These people hadn’t eaten in 8 days”, he reported. They were like animals grabbing for the food. Chris’ crew had 2 tons of rice a ton of cooking oil and potted milk but it was nearly impossible to get the supplies to shore. All the fishing boats had been destroyed. The pier was gone. They found one small raft and, in what seemed like hours, they ferried the rice, oil and milk across the bay and set up lines to drag it across the debris-strewn shoreline.

For the next two weeks Chris and his other team members did what they could to help. They cleaned out the village’s 15 wells. They pumped out the sea water, pulled out bodies, purified the wells with Chlorine and began pumping drinkable water again.

Calang now has about 800 children – half of them are between approximately 6 and 12 years old; the other half teenagers. Many have no parents. A UN advisor Chris met explained to him that she did not support sending the kids off to distant orphanages. Instead, she recommended forming new extended families among the village’s survivors, and so they did. Chris found older boys and girls and asked them to be responsible for taking care of a small group of younger children he had gathered together. They created new supportive families on the spot.

When they left after two weeks of relief work, the chief of the village (a man who had lost his wife and four children), gave Chris a hand written letter of appreciation from the survivors. In it he said that Chris and his team had made a real contribution and that they were always welcome in their village.

Click here to view the video on the initial relief efforts (6559K) in Realplayer format.

Download the free Realplayer for Mac or Windows at http://www.real.com