Book captures tsunami horrors

By TREVOR WAHUNE
Every July 17 since the 1998 tsunami destruction in Aitape, the people of West Sepik remember how the sea erupted with huge waves that carried people away and destroyed whole communities.
On Monday, July 17, Prof Hugh Davies from the University of Papua New Guinea, who was at the scene days after the tsunami hit, launched his book The Aitape Story, that recounts the horrors of the event.
“Although it has been 19 years since the Aitape disaster, the horrors still exist as if it has just happened last week.
“They were shocked, because many did not know what was going on,” Davies said.
Davies had been helping in Rabaul in a public information role in the weeks following the volcanic eruption in 1994, and, before that, at the time of the seismic crisis in 1983.
From those experiences he knew that there was a need to go to Aitape and talk with survivors.
“At the time of any emergency people need to be given reliable information,” Davies Said.
He went to Aitape when he was was given permission by  the National Disaster Centre and spent as much time as he could talking with people and trying to convince them that this was a natural phenomenon and not the result of sorcery.
“I was teaching full time so the visits had to be made over weekends or in holiday time. I think I made 18 visits in all.
“I would finish teaching on Thursday, collect my printed pamphlets from the university printery and head to the airport at 5am the next morning to get a 6am flight to Wewak and then to
Aitape, returning the following Monday.”
He said it was a scramble but it felt good to have done something to help.
“I met a lot of remarkable people. These included the religious communities, such a tower of strength, the volunteers from within the country, including Tas Maketu, a local man and former secretary of the department of defence, and the Parers, stalwarts of the Aitape business community for many years, and the first to help with emergency food and fuel, and other volunteers from overseas.”
He said the three main villages affected were Sissano, Warapu, and Arop.
He told of how the Arop church was swept away, and how the Sissano School was swept into trees and then collapsed, while also showing photos of damages that were caused during the tsunami.
Davies said that the 2400-plus casualties of the Aitape tragedy were largely a result of a lack of awareness by government agencies.
This was part of their responsibilities.
The warning signs were there, but people did not recognise them.
The book is an account of the disaster that shocked the world and the remarkable events that followed.
Three copies of  The Aitape Story were presented to the secretary for Provincial and Local Level Government Affairs, Dickson Guina, United Nations Development Programme technical specialist for disaster risk management Khusrav Sharifov  and Japanese embassy representative Minshudu Yenshu Daseh at the launching.