Swathes of coast now wasteland

SWATHES of coast were stripped of life in the isolated west of Indonesia’s Aceh, with reports of starvation and looting doing little to alleviate fears for areas from where there was only silence.

Witness accounts from aircraft flying over a 240-kilometre stretch of shoreline say nothing remains of villages and towns in an area left underwater by Sunday’s titanic earthquake and tidal waves.

While relief was reaching other parts of Aceh, the region at the northern tip of Sumatra island, there has been no contact with the main western town of Meulaboh, other than a SOS warning that time was running out for survivors.

Vice President Yusuf Kalla, who made an aerial reconnaisance of the western coastline and outlying islands yesterday said he saw no signs of life in Meulaboh, a town of 40,000 people.