Aid has been slow to reach many of the isolated communities on the northwest coast of Sumatra and its offshore islands. AAAI has supported several marine relief missions since early January, including two by the Mikumba. This is an account of the surfer-organized grassroots effort Sumatran Surfzone Relief Opertion (SSRO) to help the people of the tsunami- stricken outer islands of Sumatra, Indonesia.

From the diaries of the team aboard the Mikumba…
Between January 13 and 22, Phase One of the Sumatran Surfzone Relief Operation (SSRO) delivered medical care as well as 37 tons of food and other aid to communities on the islands of Nias and Simeulue.

Phase Two began when the newly loaded Mikumba left Padang on January 30. The next day, the SSRO's relief efforts took on a new poignancy. At tiny Siberut Island, 16 dugout canoes and 32 paddles were taken aboard our ship. This vital component of sustainable, culturally consistent relief now lay stacked amidships on the deck.

Sailing north to Simeulue, small villages lay sleeping in the morning haze. Thatch huts on stilts, typically surrounding a stone mosque or church, canoes resting on a quiet beach below. So peaceful, but we know all too well what devastation occurred on the exposed northwestern coast of these islands where similarly picturesque settlements were suddenly engulfed by a 30-foot wave and wiped off the map.

At one anchorage, we saw palm trunks sticking up out of the sea about 100 yards from shore. We learned that three houses once stood under these trees. The entire southern tip of Simeulue submerged some three feet on the day of the great upheaval, nearly matching the stunning uplift of reefs on the northern end. Despite widespread destruction, the people of Simeulue are cheerful and industrious, putting back the pieces of their lives as well as possible.

We made our first stop at the village of Salu with a population of approximately 500, setting up our mobile medical clinic in the cramped office of the Kepala Desa, or village chieftain. Food, tools and school supplies were distributed outside. The first canoe was presented to Salur’s most experienced fisherman, much to his delight. As with virtually every other island village the Mikumba visited, the sea-wise population, upon feeling the earthquake and seeing the waters recede, spontaneously headed for the hills. Few lives were lost.

The Mikumba sailed that night en route for the northwestern region of Simeulue, the area hardest hit by the tsunami, and not yet visited by major relief operations. It is known that the small villages ringing Simeulue's many palm-lined bays are still in dire need of medical and food assistance. The SSRO team is ready to go where others can't in these reef-strewn and wave-lashed coastlines. Cruising offshore, picking our way through the coral maze, we look for the smoke of cooking fires, the only sign of habitation along this primordial shore. There are many destinations on our list.

A few days later, the scale of Southeast Asia's tsunami disaster had been narrowed down to a single life for the crew of the Mikumba. A baby, barely a week old, lay in his young mother's arms in the wreck of a village named Teluk Delam. SSRO's medical team diagnosed a severe infection, which would be fatal without immediate medical care. We loaded Umi, her ailing son Radja (Arabic for Hope) and aged mother aboard the Mikumba and raced south to Busung, where an ambulance could transfer the tiny patient overland to Sinabong, Simeulue's capital city.

SSRO's medical team worked tirelessly throughout the six-hour voyage to stabilize the very sick baby. Twice during that long night the little patient's heartbeat stopped, requiring emergency CPR. Upon arrival in Busong Bay, the Mikumba rendezvoused with SurfAid doctors on the vessel Indies Trader 2. Dr. Ben Gordon, roused from sleep, immediately transferred to the Mikumba and spent the rest of the early morning setting up an IV unit and further stabilizing young Radja, who was diagnosed with acute tetanus.

At daylight the little family and a doctor were ferried to shore. A van was arranged to medevac them to Sinabong, where aid organization doctors waited to provide more extensive medical care.

Later that day, Mikumba sailed to a string of coastal villages that were reported to be in need of immediate aid, even though it was now well over a month after the tsunami. On shore, crowds of villagers rushed to the water's edge with courteous anticipation. The village was still reeling from the effects of the 18-foot wall of water that raged through this peaceful shore. Not one life was lost in this village, but virtually everything else was.

Relief efforts, including a medical clinic, supply distribution and the presentation of the valued canoes started the next day. Severe squalls made offloading treacherous. SSRO's medical team was ferried ashore and a M*A*S*H-like clinic was thrown up. Eight canoes were hurled like javelins from the heaving deck of the Mikumba into the swells. Eight bold fisherman leapt after them, and exhibiting incredible dexterity and seamanship, delivered the precious craft to shore.

The capriciousness of the tsunami and subsequent damage is startling. Two villages are separated by a single headland, maybe three-quarters of a mile across a steep grade. But while Naibos looked bombed-out with bridges down, trees toppled and walls caved in, Laayon simply no longer existed. During a reconnaissance trip on the back of a motorcycle, one SSRO team member asked while waiting for a herd of water buffalo to cross the road between empty fields, "How far is Laayon from here?" With sad eyes, the driver of the motorcycle looked out upon the barren landscape and said, "This was Laayon."

We learned that night that little Radja from Teluk Delam had died of complications from tetanus. He was eight days old. But if you measure success in life by having it said that you inspired others, then Radja's short time on earth was very full indeed.

After several more stops to distribute aid and provide medical care, a final assessment of our last remaining supplies revealed that we had just enough for one more small village. Rumors from other Captains in the area inspired us to chance one last bold mission. With little water left on board and just enough fuel with fair weather to make it home to Padang, we decided to strike north three hours into the restricted Alafan region and find the remote village of Lafakha. Unique in its river mouth geography, this small village of 850 people was a catcher’s mitt for the tsunami. Here we witnessed the most extraordinary sight of both our voyages. Not only was the coastline and small village smashed to pieces, but the reefs of the bay, shifted by the great seismic event, rose up to 9 feet out of the water and stretched for miles in each direction dry as bones. It was a desertscape of coral with a strange, deadly beauty -- a new land, unwalkable, with great towers of the underwater world exposed and drying brittle and rock-hard in the equatorial sun. A land like no other on earth.

After initial contact with the grateful villagers, the last stand of the Mikumba’s Phase Two got underway in an old wood drying shed Again, the SSRO team worked dawn to dusk until every last item of our medical supplies and aid material was exhausted. Fittingly, after long 2 long voyages that took place over six weeks, the Mikumba’s last gesture was to paddle the last two canoes to shore at sunset.

As our empty dinghy pulled away from the beach in the dying light. our crew’s last sight was a small boy heading into the jungle, a new soccer ball and a machete under one arm, his other raised high in final salute.

During the fourteen day period of the Mikumba’s second voyage, the Sumatra SurfZone Relief Operation distributed 16 dugout canoes complete with nets and fishing supplies, 25 tons of food, water, building materials and aid, several live chickens and goats, evacuated one critical patient for emergency care and held 126 hours of emergency medical clinics reaching over 4000 people spread over 11 separate villages.