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Powell stunned by quake horror
05/01/2005 11:23 - (SA)
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| Asmati, an Acehnese survivor of the tsunami earthquake eats some rice at a refugee centre on the outskirts of Banda Aceh, Sumatra Island, Indonesia. (Peter Dejong, AP) |
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Banda Aceh - United States Secretary of State Colin Powell toured Indonesia's tsunami-wracked Sumatra Island on Wednesday and the former army general said the devastation was the worst he's ever seen.
Powell, after flying over flattened villages along Sumatra's northern coastline, said: "I've been in war and I've been through a number of hurricanes, tornados and other relief operations, but I've never seen anything like this."
"I can not begin to imagine the horror that went through the families and all of the people who heard this noise and then had their lives snuffed out by this wave."
Powell was in Indonesia ahead of a meeting of world leaders in Jakarta on Thursday to iron out problems, co-ordinating history's largest relief operation.
Tsunami deaths in East Africa
So far, $2bn has been pledged, but with nearly 150 000 people dead, millions homeless and tens of thousands threatened by disease, the challenges are enormous.
Hardest hit was Sumatra, which was closest to the 9.0 magnitude quake that struck off of Indonesia's western coast on December 26, triggering the tsunami that caused deaths as far away as East Africa.
Powell said he saw "how the wave came ashore, pushing everything in its path, cars, ships, freighters overturned, all the way up to the foothills, and then starting up the foothills until finally the waves came to a stop."
- AP
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