Humanity First Indonesia

A major earthquake magnitude 7.6 struck after 5pm local time on Wednesday 30 September, north-west of Padang (pop. 800,000), the capital of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The next day, a further 6.8 magnitude quake struck just before 9am in the same location.

HF has increased momentum in its water projects across Sumatra. So far, dozens of villages have been assessed for need and local geography, and 30 hand-pumps have been established providing daily clean drinking water for an estimated 19,000 villagers.

Just 2 years since the terrible Tsunami struck Banda Aceh killing 167,000 people, northern Sumatra was again struck, this time by terrible flash flooding caused by torrential rains. The floods left over 100 people dead and around 400,000 homeless. Whole villages were inundated and villagers trying to survive by running to higher ground. HF Indonesia was on the ground immediately providing emergency shelter, daily hot meals and clean water to hundreds of refugees.

A huge tidal wave struck the resort of Pangandaran in Java on 17 July 2006 killing at least 659 and with wave heights estimated at over 5 metres. The Tsunami was caused by a magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck at 8am off the coast of south Java which caused the Tsunami that hit 200km of coastline, particularly Pangandaran. 200 people are still missing and hundreds more were injured. HF Indonesia set up a camp in the village of Kertamukti to look after 800 refugees for a 2 week period with shelter and hot meals.

The volcano of Mount Merapi in southern Java has been increasingly active causing concerns for the villages surrounding the crater. The volcano, not far from the city of Jogjakarta has been increasingly active since April 19, and in early May, lava flows forced the emergency status to be lifted to the highest level forcing the emergency evacuation of around 20,000 people. To compound the misery, on May 27, a 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck 30 miles south-west of Merapi killing 5,000 and making a further 200,000 people homeless.

On December 26th 2004, a massive Tsunami devastated much of Asia. The Epicentre was at the far tip of Indonesia near the province of Banda Aceh, and was triggered by an underwater earthquake registering 9.1 on the Richter scale. The death-toll was over 220,000 with over 1.5 Million homeless of which more than 167,000 deaths and 500,000 homeless were in Indonesia.

Following the Tsunami that hit much of South-East Asia on December 26th 2004, it is now emerging that the worst hit country is Indonesia where it is likely that over 100,000 people may have been killed. This appears far worse than the casualties in Sri Lanka and India. HF has established a number of camps in Banda Aceh where our doctors are treating many injuries and trauma cases. HF are also establishing temporary shelters for the thousands of people left stranded since their homes were washed away.