INDONESIA: They seemed to appear from nowhere, a small group of men and boys, eager to get their hands on the precious cargo carried by a US navy helicopter.
The Seahawk briefly touched down in the rubble of what used to be the town of Teuhom yesterday, bringing smiles to the faces of survivors of the tsunami with its delivery of bottled water and sacks of rice.
After quickly and carefully stacking boxes of aid alongside the helicopter, the grateful villagers shook hands with everyone on board before it took off again to return to the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier off the Indonesian coast to refuel.
This was one of just 30 sorties planned for the scores of US helicopters delivering aid throughout the devastated province of Aceh on the northern tip of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, where almost all Indonesia's 94,081 deaths occurred.
After offloading their cargo, many crews return to the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, with sick and injured survivors, many severely dehydrated and weak from a lack of food.
"There was one woman we picked up who was very weak, but with her hands made the number 'six' for me," said helicopter pilot Ralph Topete.
"It turned out she was telling me she had had six children, but lost five of them in the tsunami. It was heartbreaking."
Banda Aceh airport has become a hive of activity, with US, Australian and Singaporean helicopters buzzing in and out.
Each day the crews become more efficient at loading aid, dropping it off at remote villages and returning for more.
US navy Capt David Lausman, the Abraham Lincoln's executive officer, said Indonesian military and civilian officials were directing the US helicopter crews to the villages where aid was needed most.
Capt Lausman said homeless survivors were "beginning to coalesce in makeshift refuge camps" and organise themselves in unloading aid supplies, in contrast to earlier trips when desperate villagers dangerously mobbed helicopters for aid.
Large cargo planes rumble into the airport at Banda Aceh carrying aid from around the world as hundreds of refugees wait under a baking sun in hope of a seat on the empty aircraft returning to the city of Medan, 450 km to the south-east.
- (Reuters)