Leuser International Foundation reported: (1/1/5)

MEULABOH CRIPPLED; CALANG AND TEUNOM VANISH

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Mike Griffiths, Vice Chairman of the Foundation (LIF), accompanied by Tedi Gunawarman, Secretary General of the LIF, and Nijar Tarigan, a Medan-based LIF staff, made a special survey by air over the disaster area in NAD on 28 December 2004. They found that the damage on the west coast was greater than expected. The road to Meulaboh was crippled and the town of Meulaboh itself was at least 60% destroyed. Meanwhile, the towns of Teunom in West Aceh district and Calang in Aceh Jaya district had vanished completely leaving only scattered shards of concrete to show where these towns of about 12,000 people once stood. It is feared that the death toll in NAD may reach 80,000 or more.