SOS! SurfAid International is launching and an emergency appeal in response to the devastating tsunami that hit the Mentawai Islands, off West Sumatra, Indonesia.

The Mentawai Islands off the coast of West Sumatra offer some of the best waves to surf on the planet. Five surf resorts and one surf camp are located in the Northern region closest to Padang while Macaronis Resort is the only surf resort operational in Southern Mentawai located central to a do a dozen quality surf breaks, Photo: Macaronis Resort © Nathan Smith/Quiksilver

A 7.5 magnitude earthquake has struck just south of the Mentawai Islands sending a 2-3 metre (6-10 foot) tsunami into the southern island of Pagai Selatan. The quake hit at 9.42pm local time on Monday 25 October. As we post this news, it is just coming dawn in the islands so we don’t know what damage or injuries have occurred in our villages. However, SurfAid’s Mentawai Program Manager Tom Plummer, who is in Padang, believes the southern Mentawai may be trashed.

This aerial photo shows trees uprooted by Monday's earthquake triggered tsunami on Pagai island, West Sumatra, Indonesia, Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2010. Rescuersbattled rough seas Tuesday to reach remote Indonesian islands pounded by the 10-foot (three-meter) tsunami that swept away homes, and killed dozens of people. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)

Reports of extensive damage and loss of life continue to filter in and SurfAid is conducting search, assessment and response operations.

Further information from Mentawai Program Manager Alan Rogerson on Tuesday 26 October 2010, 11.20am at Padang:

"The tsunami has traveled up the east coast of Sipora and the villages of Bosua and Gobik have been hit. People are missing and one can expect further damage reports from the other low lying communities from Pagai South up to Sipora.

SurfAid International is sending a rapid response team over from Padang and is coordinating with the local disaster risk management team to assess the situation.

The resort at Macaronis has suffer extension damage but all people have been accounted for.

The capital of the Mentawai islands, Tua Pajet was unaffected by the earthquake and tsunami."

SurfAid International are coordinating with the Mentawai District government, District Disaster Management (BPBD) and surf charter boats. NZAID has provided us with funds to undertake a rapid assessment and initial response and are liaising with the office of the Indonesian Vice President.

The Southern Cross with 8 passengers and boat captain (all Australians) and one Japanese surf guide Akinori who were reported missing since yesterday morning, were confirmed safe and they are now heading to Sikakap to meet with a locally based  emergency response team and other surfers. It’s a big relief for many friends and relatives of everyone on board.

We are also working with other charter boats in the islands and sending a plane out to search and assess the damage today, with possibilities of sending out first batch of basic supplies of tarpaulins, blankets, towels, water container, floor mat, and ropes.

SurfAid staff are heading out at 5 am today for Pagai Utara to undertake the assessment but bad weather is hampering travel.

Charter boats Barrenjoey and Sibex are heading to the affected areas with emergency supplies.

DONATIONS

YOU CAN DONATE AT www.surfaidinternational.org
and in Australia you can call 1 800 257 957.

We are a small organization which is based in the Mentawai Islands and need funding for search, assessment and response.

SurfAid International
Wednesday, October 27, 2010

This aerial photo shows a damaged building in a village (Macaronis Resort) flattened by Monday's earthquake triggered tsunami on Pagai island, West Sumatra, Indonesia, Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2010. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)

View of Macaronis Resort at dusk heading back in from a surf in the evening, photo: macaronisresort.com

Macaronis Surf Resort Luxury Villas - Right on the lagoon, photo macaronisresort.com

Chris Brown at Greenbush 2010,  photo macaronisresort.com

Australians Daniel Scanlan, left, and his injured friend Robert Marino, who survived the tsunami off Mentawai island, walk on the pier upon arriving at a port in Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia, Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2010. The Australians said they were on the back deck of their chartered boat, anchored in a bay, when Monday's quake and tsunami struck. The 10-foot tsunami swept away hundreds of homes, and killed scores of villagers. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)

The destruction on North Pagai (Pagai Utara), one of the Mentawai islands off the west coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island after an earthquake and following tsunami hit the area. Indonesian rescuers are hunting for survivors following the tsunami, while a search is also under way after a volcano erupted, in twin disasters that have left scores dead and thousands homeless. (AFP/Rus Akbar)

Indonesia struggles as tsunami, volcano tolls rise

MENTAWAI ISLANDS, Indonesia – Helicopters with emergency supplies finally landed Wednesday on the remote Indonesian islands slammed by a tsunami that killed at least 272 people, while elsewhere in the archipelago the toll from a volcanic eruption rose to 30, including the mountain's spiritual caretaker.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono cut short a state visit to Vietnam to rush home to deal with the dual disasters that struck Indonesia within 24 hours, straining the country's ability to respond.

The first aerial surveys of the region hit by the 10-foot (three-meter) tsunami revealed huge swaths of land underwater and the crumbled rubble of homes torn apart by the wave. One house lay tilted, resting on the edge of its red roof, with tires and slabs of concrete piled up on the surrounding sand.

Two days after an undersea earthquake spawned the killer wave, the casualty count was still rising as rescuers landed for the first time on the Mentawai island chain, which was closest to the epicenter and the worst hit. Bad weather had kept them away previously.

The first cargo plane loaded with 16 tons of tents, medicine, food and clothes arrived Wednesday afternoon, said disaster official Ade Edward. Four helicopters also landed in Sikakap, a town on North Pagai island, which will be the center of relief operations.

"Finally we have a break in the weather," Edwards said, adding that he hoped search and rescue operations would finally pick up pace. "We have a chance now to look for the missing from the sky and also to survey the extent of the damage."

About 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) to the east in central Java, disaster officials were scouring the slopes of Indonesia's most volatile volcano for survivors after it was rocked by an eruption that killed at least 30 people, including an old man who refused to abandon his ceremonial post as caretaker of the mountain's spirits.

Mount Merapi erupted at dusk Tuesday, sending up searing ash clouds and killing more than two dozen people.

Authorities warned the thousands who fled Merapi's wrath not to return during Wednesday's lull in volcanic activity, but some villagers were desperate to check on crops and possessions left behind. In several areas, everything — from the thinnest tree branches to chairs and tables inside homes — was caked with ash that looked like powdery snow.

Among the dead was Maridjan, an 83-year-old man who had been entrusted by a highly respected late king to watch over the volcano's spirits. Maridjan, who for years led ceremonies in which rice and flowers were thrown into the crater to appease the mountain, has angered officials in the past by refusing to leave during eruptions.

"We found his body," said Suseno, a rescue worker, amid reports that the old man was found kneeling face-down on the floor, a typical Islamic prayer position.

Authorities had accused him of setting a wrong example and stopping other villagers from leaving, but Maridjan always said he would only go if he got a sign from the long-dead king who appointed him.

The latest blast Tuesday night eased pressure that had been building up behind a lava dome perched on the crater. But experts warned the dome could still collapse, causing an avalanche of the blistering gas and debris trapped beneath it.

"It's a little calmer today," said Surono, the chief of Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation. "No hot clouds, no rumbling. But a lot of energy is pent up back there. There's no telling what's next."

Even as rescue officials contended with the volcano — one of 129 under watch in Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago — officials hundreds of miles (kilometers) away were trying to assess the damage from the earthquake and tsunami.

Both the quake and the volcanic eruption fell along Indonesia's portion of the Pacific Ring of Fire, a series of fault lines that are prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity stretching from the Western Hemisphere through Japan and Southeast Asia.

On Wednesday evening, disaster official Ade Edward nearly doubled the earthquake and tsunami casualty estimates to 272 dead with 412 still missing. He said the rescuers who landed Wednesday received new casualty reports from village chiefs.

With not enough people to dig graves, corpses littered beaches and roads, according to district chief Edison Salelo Baja. Fisherman were scouring waters in search of survivors.

Disaster officials were still trying to reach more than a dozen villages on the Mentawais — a popular surfer's destination that is usually reachable only by a 12-hour boat ride.

But they were preparing for the worst Wednesday, with hundreds of body bags being sent to the area, said Mujiharto, who heads the Health Ministry's crisis center.

The 7.7-magnitude quake that struck late Monday just 13 miles (20 kilometers) beneath the ocean floor was followed by at least 14 aftershocks, the largest measuring 6.2. The fault line on Sumatra island's coast is the same one that caused the 2004 quake and monster Indian Ocean tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries.

Officials say hundreds of wooden and bamboo homes were washed away on the island of Pagai, with water flooding crops and roads up to 600 yards (meters) inland. In Muntei Baru, a village on Silabu island, 80 percent of the houses were badly damaged.

Those and other islets hit were part of the Mentawai island chain, 175 miles (280 kilometers) from Sumatra.

By SLAMET RIYADI and ACHMAD IBRAHIM
The Associated Press
October 27, 2010
Associated Press writers Niniek Karmini and Irwan Firdaus contributed to this report

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