Jakarta, Indonesia:

We're all witnessing what tsunamis can do, but what are the lessons learned that are useful to Tonga? asks Tupou Lindborg, a Tongan who lives in Jakarta. Tupou originally from 'Utulei, Vava'u, was manager of the South Pacific Alliance for Family Health in Nuku'alofa in the late 1980's.

By Tupou Lindborg

Before I relate my experiences below, I want you to know that Tonga is even more at the center of my thoughts and silent prayers this week. The tsunami devastation is haunting me. The number of people who have died in Aceh alone exceeds Tonga's population of 100,000! The affected coastal areas stretch farther than 180 miles, the distance from Tongatapu to Vava'u!

We didn'’t feel anything here in Jakarta when the earthquake occurred. However, Jon and I noticed some exceptionally strange winds (unusual for this time of the year) on Christmas day and throughout the night. Jon, an avid windsurfer, was wondering about the winds on Sunday morning, December 26, 2004. When I turned on the TV to catch the 10:30 am news I was surprised to read the ticker tape at the bottom of the screen that an earthquake registering 8.9 on the Richter scale had occurred in Aceh in Indonesia. I flipped the channel to the local TV stations and found nothing on the earthquake.

Both of us have read "Krakatoa" by Simon Winchester and are well aware that an earthquake of this magnitude and ensuing tsunamis wreak havoc on people living on islands and coastal areas. A few minutes later, Jon silently handed me a hard copy of his findings on the internet. I read it...…an earthquake report only but NO mention of tsunamis warnings. We knew we probably wouldn...’t experience tsunamis in Jakarta from the Aceh earthquake in northern Sumatra. Jakarta is on the island of Java separated from Sumatra by the Sunda Strait. As he walked off to continue his internet search, I heard him muttering, "There...’s going to be devastation beyond our imagination, like Krakatoa or even bigger!" Chills went down my spine as my mind was racing. What would happen if this happened in Tonga? Tonga, like Indonesia, is prone to such disasters.

Half an hour later, Jon retuned with another print out and this time there were tsunami warnings for western Sumatra and the Indian Ocean coastlines including Phuket, Thailand. Jon was already on his mobile phone trying to reach our neighbor and another family who were vacationing in Phuket with their young children, our ten year old Ryan...’s friends. The phone rang but nobody answered and within another half hour, it stopped ringing. We feared the worst! That night, he located one family and their flight had been diverted to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where they decided to stay. On Monday, a day later, we received a short e-mail from our neighbor. They had escaped the tsunami in Phuket because they were kayaking in a secluded bay area when the tsunami struck. He wrote, "We are making our way to Bangkok to get new passports because we lost everything. Our 200 room hotel, with full occupancy, has been obliterated and all the guests and workers are gone!"

On Sunday night, while Jon worked on the phone with other USAID staff to mobilize humanitarian assistance, I stayed up most of the night e-mailing friends in Sri Lanka. We lived and worked in Colombo, Sri Lanka, for four years and still have many friends there. I got to know people all along the southern tip of the island. I also visited refugee camps and traveled most of the eastern coast of Sri Lanka. I can vividly remember the inquisitive stares from refugee children in Trincomalee and Batticoloa and the kind and generous faces of my Sri Lankan friend...’s family who served us lunch. They were living in refugee camps of 500-1,000 people each and my friend...’s house was not more than 50-100 ft from the beach. We wondered if they had survived the tsunami.

On Monday, devastation in Sri Lanka, Thailand and southern India were consuming us with worry as we waited for news about Aceh. We could only surmise the worst because of what had happened in more distant shores. Aceh'’s borders had been closed, especially to foreigners (except for a few international humanitarian organizations), due to the decades old separatist war. The gripping horrendous tragedy of Aceh became known to the rest of world when Indonesia'’s Vice President Kalla went there with the media, two days after the tsunami.

The urgency with which we live our lives this week is indescribable. It'’s a race against time. I now work as a volunteer for one of the international humanitarian organizations.

Personal accounts from our American and Indonesian people on the ground in Aceh are like listening to horror movies: "as I stepped off the plane at Banda Aceh, dead, bloated bodies are everywhere and I cannot begin to count them all";...…"we sleep on the tarmac because we don'’t have shelter";...…. "the stench of human decay is beyond description and I can smell it up in the air as we drop off food and water"; "devastation of Biblical proportions!"

Two interesting comments struck me, "the dead bodies of so many, many babies, children and women",...…."Women and young children suffered the most and lost their lives". And...… "there are all these decaying, human bodies but I haven'’t seen one dead animal, not even a rat!" This leads me to think that we should be more astute about observing strange animal behavior.

We're all witnessing what tsunamis can do. What are the lessons learned useful to Tonga?

A. Tonga's peau kula warning system must be assessed and improved so that warnings are heard in every village including remote islands. A fog horn and flashing lights are possibilities. Mobile phones saved people...’s lives but it's not enough. A system must be activated AS SOON AS Tonga receives information about a sizable earthquake anywhere in the Pacific Ocean or the countries in the Pacific Rim, especially South America. Interestingly, the island of Simeulue, off the coast of Aceh, close to the earthquake epicenter did not experience much damage and not many lives were lost. Most of the people ran to high ground as soon as they felt the earthquake. The island is almost on top of the rift and tsunami waves build up speed and force as they go.

B. Educate people, especially women and school children, about earthquakes and tsunamis and prepare them for these natural phenomena. Convey simple ideas that may save lives such as:

1. If the tide recedes very quickly and you see more beach than you normally see during low tides, run for high ground.

2. Do not wait to see if the tide will return to normal levels, run for high ground.

3. Do not be tempted to catch fish or pick up shellfish left by the receding tide, run for high ground.

4. Do not wait for a warning if you feel a "big mofuike", run to high ground.

5. If there is no high ground to run to, get in a boat and go far out to deep, deep water.

6. Pay attention to the sound of very loud waves, tsunami waves can be heard from a distance like a loud roar of an airplane taking off, run to high ground.

7. If you can, climb to the top of a strong, tall tree, a coconut tree is best.

8. Strap yourself to a coconut tree and be prepared to move higher as the wave comes in.

9. Climb to the roof of a strong, very tall building if there'’s no high ground.

10. Hang onto floating objects i.e. mattresses, large pieces of timber, and keep your body out of the way of other fast floating objects.

11. Learn to swim and build up your strength and confidence in the water.

12. Try not to panic even in the worst of times...…the tide will eventually stabilize.

13. Wear clothes that will help protect your body from being cut by other floating objects.

14. Animals do sense things and will seek shelter if they are able to, observe and heed these warning signs.

15. Strap the baby to your chest so you can move more freely and hold on to things.

16. Keep water proof flashlights with batteries available at all times should tsunami happen at night.

17. Put floaters on babies and young children so they can float on their own if you'’re separated from them.

18. Do not swim after another person who is drowning, you'’ll drown too.

19. Tsunami waves can come onto land like a bath tub overflowing or build up into a wall of water that crashes close to shore and the most dangerous time is when the tide recedes; it'’s like being inside a washing machine or a sink when the water is let out, be aware of these tidal movements and try not to be caught in them.

C. Do not destroy reefs, they help slow down tsunami waves which can travel at speeds of 500 miles an hour.

D. Do not destroy coconut trees and tall, strong trees. Trees save lives.

E. If low lying islands do not have tall trees or tall coconut trees, start planting.

F. In low lying islands, ALWAYS keep a functional boat, with an engine, to enable a quick escape out into the ocean and far away from land.

I came up with this list after listening to survivors of these horrendous and tragic natural phenomena. If you think it'’s useful, please add yours and other people'’s ideas and circulate them to people in Tonga, especially those in low lying and more remote islands.