My first vision of the destruction in Padang
Monday, Oct.5th
At dawn we put Adam onto a new work zone. At about 10am he leapt across a pile of wood and iron debris, cleared it by 2 m and made a sudden turnabout, returned to the pile of rubble and marked the spot without barking. As I got close I could smell a strong odour; I put Adam back on lead and called over the rest of the group. After 1½ hours we pulled out a dead man. The Captain came over to me, took my hand in both of his and congratulated Adam “Good dog! Good dog!” He held up his thumb and tapped me on the shoulder. I suppose that after yesterdays' unsuccessful search he needed to be reassured of Adam's efficiency.
How could I tell him in my bad English that an unsuccessful search was also efficient as one could be reasonably certain that in that sector there were no people buried and one could therefore move on and possibly save lives else where.
Around noon we were told that the French rescue delegation had arrived with several tons of rescue material and a field hospital but no dogs. Only the British and the Australian search- dog teams were present.
Around 3.20pm, at 150m from the first victim, Adam marked a second time. After 4 strenuous hours, without the help of a bulldozer, we pulled out another dead man.
While we put the body on a stretcher another earthquake occurred, quite strong but luckily without consequences. Due to the earthquake and our general state of exhaustion the Captain decided to stop the search for the time being and to go back to camp.
Tuesday Oct.6th
As soon as I put Adam to work, for some then mysterious reason and despite 3 counter- orders, he dashed across the street and more than 200m away from us literally threw himself into the rubble of a collapsed house. After running back and forth he started scratching and digging madly, all the while whining loudly. He was very excited; never had I seen my dog like that before! He was trying to get under the debris by all possible means. We rushed over to him stumbling over the loose rubble and the first soldiers there said they had heard voices. I had great difficulty in controlling my dog so I decided to take him back to camp in his travelling kennel, give him water and try to calm him down.
When I got back to the site the Captain informed me that he also heard voices coming from the rubble. No more time must be wasted. It took us 6 long hours to pull out 7 victims - 2 dead men; 4 children between 5 and 12 years of age and a woman, all seriously hurt but alive. I asked the Captain to allow me to show them to Adam and without waiting for an answer I rushed to get my dog. When I got back a doctor was attending them and I waited till he was finished. Adam again was very excited. I let him slowly approach the children and when he got close to them he started frantically cleaning their little faces; suddenly the children started to laugh and one of them put his arms around Adam's neck, pulled his head close to his and hugged him. The wounded woman was less enthusiastic so I held Adam back. All 5 were taken away on stretchers and whisked away in 2 ambulances. When we got back to camp we had the pleasant surprise of seeing a water tanker that had been set up for us. Our first shower since our arrival!
I was very proud of my dog. I gave him an extra ration of food with rice and sauce over it from my own meal. He certainly deserved it; he had been a very good dog.
Wednesday, Oct.7th
A fruitless day except for the many identity papers and other documents that we found each day and that the Captain will hand over to the local Authorities at the end of our mission.
Thursday, Oct.8th
During the morning Adam very slightly signaled a place in the ruins of a concrete building whose several floors had collapsed. Luckily a bulldozer was working nearby and with its' help we were able to recover 2 bodies trapped under a concrete block in under 3 hours.
Friday, Oct.9th
Early morning Adam clearly marked a spot without barking. In less than an hour we pulled out a dead girl.
In the afternoon we were working on a concrete and brick building; Adam marked again, this time whining and visibly upset. I almost had the feeling he was crying. After giving the dog a rest we cleared the entrance and went into the collapsed building. Very carefully we proceeded through the debris of broken furniture while the rest of the group watched out for signs of danger - the rubble could collapse at any time. Suddenly behind a wall I saw in the beam of my lamp a young girl impaled by a metal girder. The sight was horrible! Yet, we had to get her out so her family could mourn her. After pulling ourselves together we decided to fetch something to prop up the vault and also some tool to cut through the girder. We came back with a disk saw and some wooden posts. It was most important to stabilize the rubble to make a safer place to work in -it might well have been the girder through the girls' body that was holding everything together. That job done then we had to cut the girder to free the body of the poor girl. As no volunteers came forward I did the grueling work myself. It took over 2 hours in a very uncomfortable position and I used up 2 disks. I then asked one of my companions to return the saw and come back with a body bag. We had to remove the girder from the girls' body to put her into the sac and carry her outside.
We had hardly left the building when we felt the ground shake and with a deafening roar the whole building collapsed behind us. Evidently our time had not come yet!
Just before dusk Adam signaled in a cellar of a wooden house. Around 1am we freed the corpse of an old man.
We were at the end of our strength; Adam had no energy left, I had no more dog food for him and all the International Aid Organisations were now present so I decided to leave and asked the Captain to have somebody take me to the airport. He came to me, hugged me, took my hand in his and again “thumbs up” said “thank you, good dog very good dog” and all the men came over to say goodbye.
The end results of my mission:
14 people recovered of which 1 woman and 4 children alive.
Back home we washed and went to sleep till Monday morning.
Michel Eckert
79bis, Chemin des Fleurs
97423-Le Guillaume
GSM 0693921718
|