This is from my friend Petra Schneider of IDEP Foundation, an NGO in Bali that does disaster work in the area. They were instrumental during the Aceh tsunami crisis in 2005 as they were local, well-connected and able to get people and supplies into Aceh immediately. I worked very closely with them from Vermont during the aftermath.
You can see my blog posts from that event: http://thedatafarm.com/blog/asia/
Their website is www.idepFoundation.org
They are gearing up for Padang as the new worsens by the hour.
Our Bali team is on the the way they will be in Padang tomorrow. Our local partner http://www.kogami.or.id/ is ok and will be coordinating efforts for us in the area.
News from the field is awful. Many people are still caught underneath rubble, hospitals and most major infrastructure in the downtown core including major communications system down (which made communication up to now really difficult). Good news is that the electricity just came back on a few hours ago so people are slowly starting to be able to re establish communication lines.
This is a truly terrible event, which has been predicted to happen for a long time. The people of Padang have done a lot of work to prepare for disasters and they are doing their best to deal with this tragedy, but now they need our help, we will know more about the specifics of what is needed within a few days.
What IDEP needs from us is financial support so they can go purchase supplies to bring into Padang. They currently can only take bank wire transfers. Paypal does not support Foundations in Indonesia, only businesses. Google’s donation services only works for u.s. orgs. We are looking for a better solution.
