Patrick Purcell, an expatriate Australian businessman in the Solomon Islands town of Gizo, recalls the tremors that marked the start of the devastating earthquake and tsunami. It was April 2 and his wife, Jully, was near the water, which was "going off like a washing machine on drugs". "Eventually the earth stopped throbbing and she was able to cross to me," he says, writes Guardian Unlimited, Friday April 20 2007 at http://www.guardian.co.uk/.
Forwarded by Budhi Mulyawan 190407.

The next thing they knew, the sea was receding ominously, then rearing up to form a wave that some people say was as tall as a two-storey building. "We heard screaming from the village between us and the sea. We ran up on to our hill and watched houses drifting towards the lagoon. There were people among them. Women and kids were running up the path towards us. The houses started tumbling back in and out again. There was nothing we could do but yell, 'Come up, come up'," says Mr Purcell.

He and his wife unintentionally became directors of one of the many refugee camps that have formed on the hills above Gizo, the capital of Western Province. The biggest problem they faced was malaria. "We have asked for mosquito repellent because it's difficult keeping people under nets on the side of a hill in lean-tos."

Although stores and coastal villages were destroyed, Gizo became the aid hub and was first in line for the influx of airlifted emergency supplies. A field hospital was hastily built.

People on more remote islands faced a much longer wait for food and water. Aid agencies were delayed in reaching islands to assess needs and deliver basic supplies because most of the boats in the area were destroyed by the tsunami. Gizo is normally an 11...#8209;hour voyage by boat from the capital, Honiara; this now takes even longer because of the hazard of jagged reefs uplifted by the quake.

Andrew Macalister, of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, says: "The way the population is geographically spread, along with poor communications, makes this a really challenging disaster."

The magnitude 8.1 quake and tsunami officially claimed 39 lives, but people are still missing. Aid agencies and the national disaster committee are working to avert food shortages and the spread of disease in makeshift camps.

The epicentre lay near a fretwork of lagoons containing hundreds of volcano-formed islands known as Western Province. About 90,000 people are potentially affected in this region alone. Gizo, the provincial capital, has been almost flattened. Also badly hit was the southern side of Choiseul, a large island in the northeast of the archipelago.

For centuries islanders have built traditional timber and leaf houses near or on the water of these steep, rainforest-clad islands. Their homes stood no chance when disaster struck.

In the initial phase the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (an Australian, New Zealand and Pacific nations peace-keeping force deployed in the country since 2003) conducted air assessments, distributed some supplies and carried out medical evacuations to Honiara. When more boats arrived, the first reports revealed extensive destruction around the coasts, with more than 7,000 people estimated homeless across the worst-affected islands.

Martin Thomas of World Vision Australia, which is operating from Gizo, says many villages have been destroyed: "The island of Ranongga was severely hit and mudslides have completely wiped out many gardens. In other areas where gardens have survived, many vegetables are not yet ready to eat."

Many Solomon Islanders live far from stores that sell basic imported goods. They rely on their gardens for staples such as sweet potato, cassava and bananas. "There are food shortages on many parts of the islands," says Mr Thomas. "In many cases these people are fishermen, and not only have boats been destroyed, there is a great fear of water. People are hungry and forced to survive on coconuts. I have seen people eating fish that had been swept miles inland by the tsunami and . . . were lying in the road."

In one village people retrieved mouldy rice that had washed into a nearby swamp, which contained several bodies. Rainwater tanks have collapsed and some streams are contaminated, bringing the threat of dysentery. "There is greater risk of disease on the more remote islands. On one island there were up to 40 cases of diarrhoea reported," Mr Thomas says.

There is anger that aid seems to have been distributed unfairly. Leaders in Choiseul province accused the government of favouring Western Province after it took almost a week for the first supplies to reach them. Responding to criticism that the aid operation has been slow and uncoordinated, Mr Martin says: "It is inevitable that those in Gizo were going to receive aid earlier than those in the outer areas. It is simply a fact that they are easier to get to . . . Initially there were very limited resources and aid agencies and authorities were striving to get to the most in need."

Aid workers say coordination and communication between supply dispatchers in Honiara and field workers have improved and the process has become much smoother.

"We are moving out of the emergency response phase and into distributing non-medical food supplies," says Mr Macalister. These will include tarpaulins, hygiene kits and tools for rebuilding homes and gardens. "The life-threatening issues have been dealt with. I am reasonably confident there has been complete coverage." However, he admits that "there are still significant numbers of people in the bush without adequate food and shelter".

The reconstruction phase is likely to take several months; aid work is expected to be necessary for up to a year. Inia Barry, of the community development NGO Kastom Gaden Association, is in Gizo assessing the implications of the disaster on livelihoods. "There will be a long-term effect on food security because it will take years from planting to harvesting tree crops and all the fertile soil has gone," he says.

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