Asia Pacific natural disasters

Assisting the Philippines, Indonesia and Samoa

In the last week of September, a fierce trio of natural disasters - Typhoon Ketsana, the Sumatran earthquake and the South Pacific tsunami - displaced hundreds of thousands of people, wounded thousands more and claimed hundreds of lives in the Philippines, Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga and Indonesia. Médecins Sans Frontières has been providing emergency assistance to the populations devastated by these events.

PHILIPPINES
On 26 September, Typhoon Ketsana caused widespread flooding throughout the capital Manila and the surrounding region, displacing 450,000 residents. Members of the Médecins Sans Frontières teams already working on Mindanao Island in the southern Philippines were able to start providing medical consultations within days in Rizal province and were reinforced by more international field staff thereafter and more than 22 tonnes of relief materials

SAMOA
On 29 September, an 8.9 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga causing a series of tsunami waves that destroyed villages. More than 150 people lost their lives. Médecins Sans Frontières Australia was able to assist the organisation’s rapid assessment of the situation by sending a team of three people including a nurse, psychologist and logistics/water and sanitation specialist.

Our Emergency Coordinator, Veronique de Clerck, a nurse from Melbourne who travelled to Samoa, said the major needs were being covered by a comprehensive international and local response. “In terms of medical needs there have been about 70 severely wounded people. However, it has been taken care of quite well by the initial response from the Samoan Government, with the support of the Australian and New Zealand Governments.” Our own assessments revealed small training gaps in the local response to the intense psychological trauma of survivors.

INDONESIA
The largest disaster struck on 30 September - a 7.6 magnitude earthquake affecting Padang on Sumatra island in Indonesia, killing more than a thousand people and destroying buildings in the city. Emergency teams were mobilised quickly and almost 50 staff, including doctors, kidney specialists (to treat ‘crush syndrome), surgeons, nurses, psychologists and logisticians, both international and Indonesian, were on the ground within a week. In addition, a cargo plane with 43 tonnes of material, including medical kits, drugs, logistical and relief materials arrived in Padang on 7 October.

After assessing the affected region, our teams started mobile clinics in rural areas surrounding the city of Pariaman. Our clinics provided critically needed primary healthcare for many people who were forced to live in the open.

Marlene Lee, a Médecins Sans Frontières psychologist who also provided support to families said, “A lot of these people are in a difficult state now. Most are still in shock, they are grieving, they have not slept for a long time, they have lost their appetite, and they have many worries about the present and the future. There are a lot of unanswered questions.”

Related News:

 Philippines: Assessing situation as typhoon loops back - 09-10-09 09:15

 Samoa: Situation update - 09-10-09 09:10

 Indonesia: Psychologist reports from Sumatra - 09-10-09 09:06