Parents reunited with daughter lost in tsunami

The last time Amiruddin saw his shy seven-year-old daughter was three weeks ago when the tsunami snatched her away. But the Indonesian kept looking for her, and today his refugee camp’s intercom called him and he got the news: His girl was alive.

He couldn’t believe it.

His lost daughter, Putri, was waiting for him in a farmhouse near Banda Aceh, the capital of the province hit hardest by the December 26 disaster.

When the girl with big brown eyes and short dark hair appeared dressed in a dirty T-shirt and blue pants, the fish trader broke into a smile. He said nothing as he held her in his arms. Other survivors gathered around, gasping and crying at the reunion.

He grabbed her hand and the two walked slowly to waiting motorbikes.

“I want to bring the child to show my wife,” Amiruddin, who only uses one name, told the family of rice traders who had given shelter to Putri and about 200 other refugees in their home. “She feels so sick.”

The family said they never gave up hope of finding Putri, despite being torn apart the day the tsunami slammed into the town of Lhokseumawe, about 90 miles from Banda Aceh.

“I always knew she was alive,” Amiruddin said. “I had full confidence that someone would see her.”

As flood waters poured into their house, Amiruddin’s wife, Hernini, said she rushed the family to the roof. But along the way, she lost Putri. When the flood waters receded, she searched fruitlessly for her daughter among dead bodies that littered the streets.

Their house destroyed and fearing aid could take days to reach them, the family headed to Banda Aceh.

Not knowing where her parents were, Putri arrived at the home a rice trader on the day of the tsunami with about 200 other survivors. She wasn’t talking today, and it was unclear how she survived the waves.

Like many survivors, Amiruddin and his wife spent their days scanning lists of survivors and dead. They went to makeshift morgues. They handed out posters of their daughter to other relief camps.

They heard rumours, chased down leads, hunted endlessly only to come up empty handed.

They slept at night at a sprawling refugee camp of 4,000 known locally as the TVRI because it was set up on the grounds of a state-run television station.

Then early today, Amiruddin heard his name on the camp intercom. He thought he was just meeting up with a friend, only to learn that a fellow survivor had come with news that his daughter was alive.