SAF team builds two landing points to allow heavy equipment to clear a path inland
By Salim Osman In Meulaboh, Aceh and David Boey, Aboard The Rss Endurance, Off Meulaboh
SINGAPORE Armed Forces engineers achieved a major breakthrough yesterday afternoon when they established two landing points at the coastal town of Meulaboh, which has been cut off since the undersea earthquake and tsunami struck on Dec 26.
As the first excavator rolled onto the beach from the RSS Endurance, Indonesian Social Services Minister Bachtiar Chamsyah, in charge of the relief efforts in Meulaboh, expressed his country's gratitude to Singapore for its swift humanitarian aid.
He said: 'When I got word that this ship had anchored off the shores of Meulaboh, I informed Cabinet Secretary Sudi Silalahi who, in turn, informed President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
'The President was delighted.'
RSS Endurance, a helicopter landing ship, arrived on Jan 2 with 470 personnel and heavy equipment such as bulldozers, mechanical shovels and forklifts, which are vital in paving the way for relief supplies to reach remote areas in this town of 40,000, which has lost about 5,000 people.
The establishment of the landing site was important as the undersea earthquake had moved the coastline of northern Sumatra, which was closest to the quake's epicentre.
The SAF said in a statement yesterday: 'The heavy equipment is urgently needed to clear roads, and possibly prepare landing strips for aircraft.'
Mr Bachtiar, who visited the Endurance yesterday, said the heavy equipment was vital 'because our transport facilities have been destroyed'.
'We can't bring equipment from Medan or Banda Aceh because road links to this town have been cut off,' he said, referring to Sumatra's two main cities that bore the brunt of the disaster, which has killed an estimated 100,000 in Indonesia.
Also, only one concrete jetty can be used at Meulaboh. But this landing spot cannot accommodate heavy vehicles as it is broken in places and structurally unsound.
Further in, desolation and despair were palpable. The town was a shamble of wrecked wooden huts, with scores of bridges downed and fishing boats tossed 6km inland.
The smell of death still hangs over the city's streets. In the market district, people stepped over the dead to pick pots, pans and clothes from destroyed houses.
Some places have been flattened, with just foundations of homes and businesses left standing and an occasional mosque
Some of the devastated spots can be reached only by helicopter.
Bachtiar was grateful for the two Chinook helicopters and two Super Pumas that Singapore had provided. He had flown into Meulaboh from Medan on board one of the Chinooks, which also carried 10 generators that will bring electricity to some of the 70 refugee camps.
With him on the trip were Singapore's Ambassador to Indonesia Edward Lee; North Sumatra Governor Tengku Rizal Nurdin, and other officials.
Mr Bachtiar was briefed by the commander leading Singapore's relief effort in Indonesia, Colonel Tan Chuan-Jin, on board the vessel, which arrived in Meulaboh on Sunday from Singapore with 470 personnel from the SAF, Singapore Civil Defence Force and volunteer doctors and nurses.
Speaking in Bahasa Indonesia, Col Tan said in the past five days, a Hercules C-130 transport plane had been ferrying supplies to Medan.
In Banda Aceh, a medical team is working with the city's medical personnel to treat injured survivors while two Super Puma helicopters ferry food.
These were being accomplished under the first two phases of the relief effort. The third phase involves the Endurance, whose deck had been crowded with 51 trucks, trailers and other heavy equipment. They are being moved ashore swiftly to make way for the Super Pumas to land on the warship to pick up supplies for isolated villages.
Col Tan said more equipment will be brought in when the need arises. He also said the SAF's Joint Humanitarian Assistance Task Force, from the army, navy and the air force, was keen to work with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Medan and Meulaboh.
'We understand that some of the relief workers from the NGOs may have language problems. We have liaison officers with the language skills to help them,' he added.
Earlier, on board the Endurance, the miliary faced one of its biggest challenges when it found that the coastline of north-west Sumatra had moved, some parts by as much as several hundred metres.
Said the SAF in its statement later: 'The entire shoreline of Meulaboh had changed drastically due to the tsunami and severe flooding.'
The difference became obvious soon after the divers from SAF's Naval Diving Unit scouted murky waters along the Meulaboh coastline for suitable spots for the ship's landing craft. Some of the spots they marked out with buoys were nowhere to be seen on the charts.
Manoeuvring the warship is also tricky. Lieutenant-Colonel Li Lit Siew, the warship's commanding officer, had to balance his desire to bring the ship close to shore with the need to ensure the Endurance does not venture far from deeper water.
He said: 'We want to be close to the 200m depth. According to recommendations from seismic experts, being at this depth minimises impact to the ship should a tsunami occur.'
A small team on board is on 'tsunami watch' in case aftershocks trigger more tidal surges. If so, the warship will head towards deeper water where it is safe.
This was the magnitude of the task facing the Endurance.
But once the safe routes were identified, a pair of landing craft, propelled by water jets, took the bulldozers ashore for SAF's combat engineers to clear a path inland.
Also, 45 combat engineers from the Endurance went ashore to clear the beach of obstacles and sea junk. Said Col Tan: 'One of the challenges is the lack of landing points and the danger from submerged obstacles and debris, which prevents us from projecting our assets ashore.'
Most of the work to build the landing points were done by hand because the earth-moving equipment, such as bulldozers and excavators, could not be taken ashore.
Combat engineers filled 700 sandbags to build the landing sites, and by late afternoon one landing point was ready to take a bulldozer to help the soldiers cut a path further inland.
The significance of the event was not lost on Mr Bachtiar.
Seeing the number of vehicles and the 350 pallets and crates filled with relief on board the Endurance, he said: 'Our navy doesn't have the equipment you have on your ships. But the equipment from Singapore is good equipment. It will help us solve the disaster in Meulaboh.'
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