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Oxfam Staffer: 'I Was Pretty Sure This Was the End'

29th May 2006

Paulette Song, a press officer for Oxfam International, was in Yogyakarta when Saturday’s powerful earthquake struck, killing more than 4,000 people and displacing more than 150,000 others.

Oxfam's head office in Indonesia is in Yogyakarta, and the agency's response was quick and well-coordinated, Song said. Assessment teams quickly fanned out through Bantul, one of the hardest-hit towns south of the city. And the assessment was followed shortly by relief operations, as Oxfam began distributing clean water, hygiene kits, and tarps to thousands of survivors.

"Yesterday was probably the most terrifying experience I’ve ever gone through," said Song via telephone the day after the dawn quake jolted her from sleep in a hotel room on the sixth floor. "I was pretty sure this was the end." She jumped from bed and moved quickly to the bathroom doorway.

Waiting for Aftershocks
"Although the quake seemed to have stopped, I threw on cargo pants and headed out the door," she said. "The hotel was evacuating, and I shuffled in behind other guests, most of whom were in pajamas, barefoot, or other barely dressed states. After descending the five flights of stairs to the outside, I waited with other startled guests to see if there would be any aftershocks."

The hotel had sustained relatively little damage, and the magnitude of the disaster was not yet clear.

"Standing among the other guests, who were tourists like me but none of whom were expatriates or English-speaking, I felt extraordinarily vulnerable," Song said. "I had left my room with no money, no phone, no camera, nothing to assist me in documenting the experience or in leaving it entirely. I returned to my room to get dressed, grab some essentials, and get the update from the BBC. Reports were saying only 15 casualties, which was nonetheless distressing but not the magnitude of emergency we now know that it is here in Yogyakarta."

Back outside, people appeared relatively calm, said Song. But slowly, as the day wore on, she sensed the anxiety level growing. She spent much of the day touring affected areas and handling inquiries from reporters. Returning from the Oxfam office late on the night of the quake, she passed many people sleeping outside.

Fear of Volcano
"There is a great fear another quake will come and people don't want to be inside," she said. "But the greatest fear is that there will be a tsunami or that Mt. Merapi will erupt." That volcano is about 20 miles away, and its plumes of smoke are visible on a clear day. Oxfam, which has been working in Yogyakarta for 10 years, had been doing contingency planning in the event of a volcanic eruption and therefore had on hand a stock of emergency supplies, such as shelter materials and water and sanitation equipment, when the quake struck.

"Oxfam's office was ready and prepared for the eruption, which is why we were able to move so quickly to help quake victims," Song said. "I'm very proud of the agency for how quickly it was able to work and coordinate." That rapid response stood in marked contrast to the absence of other help - a situation that Song said reminded her of Biloxi, Mississippi, where it took weeks last summer for the US federal government and other responders to address the needs of a poor section of the city devastated by a storm surge from Hurricane Katrina.

"No one's been by," Song said of the quake-damaged neighborhoods she toured in Yogyakarta. "No governmental response or even an assessment team."

One of the greatest needs right now, she said, is medicine and medical care.

Hospitals Are Jam-Packed "The hospitals are jam-packed," she added. While communication has been spotty, Song said traveling on most major roads has not been difficult, despite cracks that look like little fault lines in the pavement. "The main roads are intact," she said. "It's not like it was after the tsunami," which caused massive damage to roads, bridges, and other infrastructures in Indonesia and Sri Lanka. But smaller roads in rural areas have not fared as well.

Outside Yogyakarta, earthquake damage is widespread, Song observed, again recalling the collapsed buildings and gaping foundations left in the wake of Katrina.

"The destruction in more rural areas is vast," Song said. "I felt like I was in Biloxi again."

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