Com­mu­ni­ca­tion sup­port for dual dis­as­ters in Indonesia
Fol­low­ing two nat­ur­al dis­as­ters, an earth­quake trig­gered tsuna­mi, and sep­a­rate­ly an erupt­ing vol­cano, radio ama­teurs are pro­vid­ing their help as the enor­mous response effort continues.
ORARI (Organ­isasi Amatir Radio Indone­sia) Inter­na­tion­al Affairs Coor­di­na­tor, Wis­nu Wid­ja­ja YB0AZ has pro­vid­ed ini­tial infor­ma­tion about the involve­ment of radio hams in the dual dis­as­ters that hit the Indone­sian arch­i­pel­ago this week.
He said that the ORARI Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Res­cue Task Force has joined the team of the Dis­as­ter Man­age­ment of Direc­torate Gen­er­al Post and Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions, Min­istry of Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Infor­mat­ics Repub­lic of Indonesia.
They have been oper­at­ing in the field and pro­vide com­mu­ni­ca­tions sup­port to the gov­ern­ment and com­mu­ni­ties in the area where the erup­tion of Mount Mer­api cat­a­stro­phe at Yogyakar­ta province and the earth­quake also fol­lowed by tsuna­mi at Mentawai of West Suma­tra,? said Wis­nu YB0AZ.
Media reports that at least 170 died, most­ly drowned after the tsuna­mi trig­gered by a 7.7 mag­ni­tude off­shore earth­quake struck the Mentawai islands late Mon­day off the west coast of Suma­tra. Up to 400 oth­ers are missing.
While on the island of Java, sev­er­al hun­dred kilo­me­tres away, 29 were killed when the vol­cano, Mount Mer­api, erupt­ed on Tues­day releas­ing clouds of hot gas, rocks and laver into the air. almost 42,000 peo­ple had fled to tem­po­rary shel­ters around the near­by city of Yogyakar­ta as the area is cov­ered in vol­canic ash.
The remote­ness of the affect­ed areas, poor com­mu­ni­ca­tions, and the ongo­ing dis­as­ter response and relief efforts are like­ly to see the OARI Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Res­cue Task Force involved for some time yet.
— Jim Lin­ton VK3PC, Chair­man, IARU Region 3 Dis­as­ter Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Committee.