Earthquake Photo #1
This is the heart of China town. Very dusty, dirty and dangerous. One of my biggest concerns is that another 7.0 quake could easily double the death toll as so many buildings are damaged and ready to fall at any time. We drove on this street once, and won't be doing it again, anytime soon!
Earthquake Photo #2
Once again you can see the precariousness of life in Padang at the moment. Rubble has been swept to the side of the street, but much has yet to fall.
Earthquake Photo #3
Some of these buildings have been around for over a hundred years. I think this is testament to the power of this last quake, that the building have withstood hundreds of earthquakes, but this was the one that did them in.
Earthquake Photo #4
Before.
After.
This is the front of our office. From the second floor, we used to look down on that SKYnet sign to the right. Now the combined height of all three floors worth of rubble wouldn't even touch the bottom of the sign. Bamboo still looks good though...
Earthquake Photo #5
This train is on display in Padang as a memorial to the old railroad days. The memorial says 28,500 kg EMPTY. The front wheel of the train is hanging off the left side of the track and here is a picture of the back wheels hanging of the right side of the track. So, 28 tons of steel had to jump in the air enough for the train to end up diagonally across both tracks. No wonder people in town at the time said they couldn't stand up properly during the earthquake!
Earthquake Photo #6
This is our accountant's business downtown. Her building is mostly undamaged, but she has evacuated her mother and children to Jakarta for the time being. One of the tragedies I see unfolding before me is the rapid destruction of buildings that fell. As far as I can tell there are no autopsies being done of the "weak" buildings in comparison to "strong" buildings. Why did they fall? What are the differences? At least people could learn from their mistakes, but from what I've seen there is a prevailing rush to knock down, clear out and rebuild as soon as possible. Construction materials and crew will be at a premium, and obviously whoever completes first will be able to make business first. But without knowing what went wrong, and without taking care to rebuild, people are just setting themselves up for more tragedy.
Earthquake Photo #7
This is the back of Ambacang Hotel which received the lion's share of the press as there were over 200 people trapped inside.
Earthquake Photo #8
This building is next to the Ambacang and with this comment I'm going to make assumptions. In my 10 years in living in this city, how many times have I seen hotels add ENTIRE FLOORS to their existing structures? I doubt that the landlords said, "in 10 years time we'll be able to afford to put that last floor on, so let's build our foundations strong enough to withstand another floor". More likely, "wow, business is going really well. If we just had another 20 rooms, we could make so much more money". You can see here the new rebar sticking out of the existing building. Yes, they are planning to add another story to their existing structure. With 3 of the major hotels in town unusable and pent up demand, I can guarantee that in one year I'll take a picture and this building will have another story without any work having been done to the original foundations. More tragedy ahead.
Earthquake Photo #9
Many WavePark guests during the last 2 years will recognize the red chilli pepper sign signifying that this is "Spice Homestay". Or was. The structure you're looking at is the top floor of 3 floors, so the other 2 have vanished. Sri and her crew are all safe and sound, and Sri is already planning her next building to be more consistent with living on an active fault line (aren't we all?).
Earthquake Photo #10
This is another great example of pick and choose throughout town. Building on the left is perfectly fine and livable, but not while the building on the right is still standing. Everywhere you look, smart people are moving out of buildings that are either damaged or next to a building that is.
Earthquake Photo #11
The building in the middle of the picture is the only one that has true vertical walls left, everything else looks like something out of a bad trip. Alice and I would often shop here for toiletries and ice-cream on our way home from work.
Earthquake Photo #12
My jeep was parked in the house to the right, and the occupants are now living in their garage, although I've told them they won't be safe even there if the apartment building decides to finish falling. I still don't understand how they will bring the building down WITHOUT trashing the other house? So many places around here look like something out of the "California" ride at Universal Studios when I was a kid. I remember there being an earthquake simulation on the ride, and the buildings ended up looking kinda like this...
Earthquake Photo #13
This is the crawl space that we had and the desk and chair to get out our passports and documents that were stored in the desk drawer. In a stroke of good luck, the tiled concrete box with white paint on it was solid enough to withstand two floors of concrete falling on top of it, and was EXACTLY the same height as the desk. The desk was untouched except that the glass table top broke, and somebody had looted us before we got there, took all the cash we had. There is some extra bad karma there for somebody.
Earthquake Photo #14
The old Dipo hotel. The part of the building that fell was the bar/restaurant which lacked many interior walls on the first floor. The whole thing has to go.
Earthquake Photo #15
Our roommate Tom joining the search for belongings. Tom was rewarded with a sack full of dry (and still folded) clothes that will make his life easier in the coming months. Tom works full time for Surf Aid International that has an earthquake appeal and are currently focusing their efforts on the towns north of Padang that have been ignored by the mainstream media and aid efforts.
Earthquake Photo #16
Here is Tom and I in the late afternoon walking on top of what is left of our building. There are no horizontal or vertical lines left in this landscape.
Earthquake Photo #17
This is the shop were we bought supplies for our dogs on the island. Nothing left to be said except I hope everybody got out OK.
We are standing by to make your dreams a reality.
The original secret surfing location and Mentawai adventure surfing resort in the Mentawai Islands,
West Sumatra, Indonesia.
