PADANG PARIAMAN, SUMATRA (October 6, 2009) – As international relief operations intensify in the earthquake-shattered areas of West Sumatra, CARE is distributing aid into hard-hit areas reachable only by motorbike or on foot. CARE emergency workers say remote areas were hardest-hit by the devastating 7.6 quake Sept. 30, but have received little aid because of blocked roads.
On September 30, Indra, a 20-year-old student in Padang, West Sumatra, gets a desperate phone call from his mother. The island has just been struck with a massive earthquake. Indra leaves Padang and rushes back to his home in the remote village of Pulo Air. Fortunately, he arrives to find his mother safe.
It started to rain a few hours ago, and it’s dark. Today we were supporting the government order to evacuate people from high-risk areas as a precautionary measure.
INDONESIA (October 3, 2009) – CARE International has deployed emergency items to the earthquake zone in Indonesia and is preparing to distribute the life-saving materials to survivors. CARE is part of a coordinated international effort to bring relief to the estimated 200,000 people affected by the 7.6 magnitude earthquake that hit the area on September 30th.
As we waited for Typhoon Ketsana to hit, our first priority was the safety of our staff. Any at risk were immediately called back and commonsense things like closing windows and doors, making sure we had enough drinking water and ensuring that our staff prepared their own houses were done so we were ready to concentrate on people’s needs as soon as the storm passed.
At 9:00 pm local time, on Thursday, October 1, CARE worker Bahtra Tarigan arrived at the airport in Padang on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia with the rest of the CARE emergency response team. There is no power and no functional communications. By texting on his cell phone, Bahtra has been able to send short updates to the outside world about what he is seeing in the earthquake-devastated city. Information in italics was added for clarity; all other text is verbatim from Bahtra’s text messages.
INDONESIA (October 1, 2009) – CARE Indonesia emergency team members have deployed to the earthquake-stricken city of Padang, which was hit by another massive quake today. CARE is part of a joint assessment team with government departments, other aid organizations and UN agencies to determine immediate needs of survivors.
Typhoon Ketsana, which caused such horrific damages in the Philippines, has now hit Vietnam. It is officially the worst typhoon that some areas of Vietnam has seen in decades. As it slammed through the small island nation of the Philippines, we in Vietnam braced for what we knew would soon hit our coastlines.
CARE emergency teams in Vietnam and Laos are responding after Typhoon Ketsana slammed into mainland Asia yesterday, the worst typhoon the region has seen in decades. CARE’s emergency response continues in the Philippines, helping some of the nearly two million people affected by flooding as the same storm ravaged Manila earlier this week.
In FY2023, CARE worked around the world, contributing to saving lives, fighting poverty, and increasing social justice.
