By Amy McCulla | Technical Officer
Today we met two people who had just returned from a medical assessment where they visited some of the most remote areas of Padang Pariaman District. They looked half in shock and were approaching NGOs all over the Governor's Residence to try and find anyone who was planning to work in the devastated areas they'd assessed. The area they visited sits on what used to be the ridge of a mountain. When the earthquake started the land on one side of the ridge sunk and slid over dozens of meters and took with it many houses and lives.
As the earth shook on September 30th in that village families ran out of their houses, fearing the structure would collapse. People ran in all directions. The survivors explained that family members who ran out the door to the left survived as they were on the piece of the ridge which remains today. People who rushed out the door and ran to the right disappeared in the landslide. Most of those who ran to the right have not been seen since the quake. The cliff like area which remains has been almost impossible for survivors to scale and find their loved ones. Our new friends reported that families with houses standing on the other remaining side of the ridge have taken in orphans and families who have lost everything.
Pockets of un-reached communities remain even today here in West Sumatra. Emergency aid starts to trickle into places like this village because roads have been completely destroyed and only now, in the past days, are being dug out enough for motorcycles to pass in the most remote areas. Every day it feels like we are getting to know the full scale of the situation and still pressing on everyone's mind is what will happen when the rains come. It has been a fairly dry rainy-season thus far but everyone knows that the downpours-to-come will mean greater loss of life if proper transitional shelters are not built soon. The people of Padang Pariaman wait as we try and find resources to help them. My heart went out to the people who went right and the people who went left today. This disaster is far from over and after hearing this story I think we should go find out what we can do for them and the rest of our team agrees.
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