With no other means of contact email was the only way to send a dire warning to the World community.
An article published in The Standard illustrates how the Internet has changed the World, even in a poverty and disaster stricken Indonesian town.
“While relief was reaching other parts of Aceh, the region at the northern tip of Sumatra island, there has been no contact with the main western town of Meulaboh, other than an SOS warning that time is running out for survivors.
…In an e-mail contact from Meulaboh, which would have been among the first places hit by the enormous waves local police said only 20 per cent of the town still stood.
Chief detective Rilo Pambudi said what remains of the town is completely cut off and still being battered by surging waters.
He said food is running out, there is looting and further catastrophe looms.
“If within three to four days relief does not arrive, there will be a starvation disaster that will cause mass deaths,” he said in the e-mail, released by officials in Jakarta.
“The situation in Meulaboh and its surroundings is in an emergency. Meulaboh is under an SOS code.
“The economic conditions are totally paralysed, fuel is non-existent, looting is everywhere, the number of victims is rising but they cannot be evacuated,” the e-mail went on.
Teungku Zulkarnaini, administrative head of the West Aceh district, speaking to local radio from a location outside Meulaboh where he was stranded by destroyed bridges, said he believes “tens of thousands” are dead in the area.”
Murdok | Breaking eBusiness News
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