Tsunami destruction

Mother nature is so powerful… shocking really…

We finally arrived to the islands two days ago after 35 hrs of travel. Like most of the charter boats in the area, our boat is pretty well packed with aid supplies. We also have 3 (Indonesian) SurfAid International (primary NGO in the area) workers on board who are coordinating the aid distributions for each village we pass by.

Bob Hurley handing off supplies to aid workers

The first two little villages we saw yesterday were 90% leveled. One of the them had 18 fatalities from the Tsunami… and to give some perspective, there’s only about 80 people in the entire village. So do the math – a quarter of their population erased in an instant. Its like all of their houses just disappeared into thin air with nothing but a little cement foundation remains.

Nothing but foundations remain of the villages

The reports from the villagers are suggesting that most of the casualties were from people getting hit by debris (cement blocks, wood framing, or trees) when the wave came in. The other cause is a bit graphic so I apologize in advance – they said that once the mass of water receded back out to the ocean it pulled people with it… most of whom were children. The children and elderly are the most susceptible to being swept away because they aren’t strong enough to grab onto a tree of something stationary until the surge passes. In most of the villages we’ve visited there are at least a few people still unaccounted for that are feared to be among those who were swept out to sea.

All of this intel is hard for someone like me to really grasp. I may be standing in their decimated village seeing the destruction with my own eyes… or hearing first hand from them about their horrific experiences, but I really have no idea.

Jon Rose & Brandon Guilmette unloading aid

We can do our part and help them as best we can… but until I’m sitting in a little tropical village and a relentless 3 meter wall of water steam rolls through in the middle of the night, I will never truly understand what they went through.

There’s no doubt these people are resilient and used to adversity… their character was tested beyond comprehension and yet they were all smiles when greeting us. We demo’d an distributed 3 filters to the survivors of those two villages. The filters we’re using for this mission will produce enough clean water for 100+ people so we’re generally giving 1-3 per village.

Jon Rose building filter system

There is very little help getting to these people and if it wasn’t for the surf community, it’d probably be next to nothing. SurfAid International is doing a great job of coordinating aid efforts and effectively distributing throughout the region.

Jon Rose giving a demo of the filter system

The international media has no real idea what the conditions are on the ground out here, because you really can’t until you see it with your own eyes. Even in this case, I can describe things to my best ability but there are pictures, smells, sounds, etc.. en-grained in my head that defy words…

We are doing what we can and will stay the course, but it’s important to know that they need help… and a lot of it. I am creating a log of the villages we’ve distributed filters to and how many each of them get. With that I’m doing assessments along the way, trying to calculate the ideal number of filters each of them would need to be fully sustained. The good news (if that’s even appropriate to say) is that most of these villages are fairly small in size which means in some cases 10 filters is all they’d need.

Jon Rose with SurfAid worker

Once back home we will put forth an effort to raise funds for the additional amount needed from all the villages combined and then get them over here ASAP. The filters we are giving them now will hold them over until the we can get the reinforcement project rolling.

Please help spread the word and also let me know if ANY of you are traveling to Indo soon and wouldn’t mind taking some filters over for us…

To make a contribution please visit:
SurfAid International – www.surfaidinternational.org
Waves For Water – www.wavesforwater.org

More to come . . .
– Jon Rose

When big-wave surfer Greg Long got a first-hand glimpse of the coastal region of Chile, he was heartbroken.

Greg Long creates a water purifier in Chile. Photo courtesy of Philip Muller.

Here was a land he had become so fond of, not just because of the world-class waves, but also because of the kind-hearted people he’s encountered on his many trips to the coastal regions.

But after the 8.8 earthquake hit late February, and a tsunami crashed upon the shore, structures and buildings were wiped out, like they had never existed. Schools crumbled and collapsed. Hundreds of thousands were without homes. Read More

Jon Rose, of Waves For Water, bringing clean water to Haiti

If you recall previous stories I’ve written, Rose was near Sumatra when a 7.9 earthquake hit last September. He rushed to the crumbled city with 10 filters he had in a bag – in the early hours before international relief had even showed up – to get clean water to the Red Cross.

Shortly after, the disaster in Haiti hit. Rose soon found himself in Haiti with financial backing from actor Sean Penn, who funded an effort to bring 4,000 of the ceramic filters to Haiti, providing clean water for about 40,000 people. Read More

Orange County (myFOXla.com) – An Orange County surfer was visiting Indonesia when the massive earthquake happened on September 30th .

John Rose was on the ocean when the magnitude-7.6 earthquake hit the area, and had no idea what had just taken place until his boat pulled into harbor to find the devastation. Instead of getting out of there, Rose jumped in to do what he could to help… including delivering clean drinking water to survivors. He just returned home with remarkable images from the area and stories to tell.

“No matter what, I am sure that I was in the middle of a miracle in being here with the water filter technology that I had, in a place that so desperately needed it. Breathtaking experience. Twelve crucial hours in an environment that I hope we will all never live to see. Lives were saved with those filters. My heart goes out to these people.

Digital version of the OC Register cover story for Tuesday, 10/20/09

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/rose-water-filters-2614721-city-workers

Radio interview: http://www.fm949sd.com/morning/story.aspx?ID=1159225

Excerpts from ESPN story: http://espn.go.com/action/surfing/news/story?id=4551391#

“In a setting that was constantly bombarded with bad news we all sat there and looked at one another with huge smiles and a sense of accomplishment. It was beautiful”

“I had 10 ceramic water filters in my bag that I had planned on using for my upcoming Bali trip, and immediately became consumed with trying to get these filters into Padang and in the hands of relief efforts. I knew the significant impact my filters could have and had to act.”

“The drive through Padang to the Red Cross station felt like something out of a battle scene in a Terminator movie. Smoke and rubble was everywhere, people were yelling, while others absently stood there smoking cigarettes, frozen in a state of shock. It was so soon after the quake that it seemed there was no real understanding of what happened or more importantly, what to do. Everyone just looked helpless.”

Building in Sumatra demolished by the quake

“At one point we were standing next to what used to be a little shopping center and I heard faint voices crying for help from beneath the ruble.”

“I found their best English speaking representative. His name was Alfri. I asked if they needed water filters. Their eye’s popped out of their heads as if I had just said they won the lottery. It was a look I will never forget as long as I live. They said access to clean water was one of their biggest challenges, and not just for drinking but also to use in cleaning and treating the wounded.”

“After driving around for a couple hours we found clear, plastic, five-gallon canisters that are probably used to store gasoline. I bought four of them with hopes of setting up two fully operational systems by the end of the day.
We finally made it back to the Red Cross, it was time to get creative and start assembling the system. The next couple hours were magical. Red Cross workers and I collaborated on various ideas and methods of how to modify the new materials and make them into working filtration systems. I had my Gerber seven-inch knife packed in my bag and I used that to cut through the hard plastic, make holes, and slices wherever needed. The whole process was a team effort and truly would not have worked without everyone’s input.

Jon demonstrates hoe the water filters work

Finally we had finished one system. It wasn’t the prettiest thing but it seemed to have everything in its right place. We went out behind the building to a well that sat in direct sunlight. He said there’s water in here, but it’s completely contaminated. He said there are well’s like this attached to the rear of most buildings but no one ever uses them because they are too dirty.
I told him this is what these filters are made for so we lowered a bucket into the brownish-yellow water. At close glance the water was even more horrific than I thought. It was a rich yellow color filled with algae and other clumps of who know what floating in it. We walked back to the system and poured the water in. It takes about an hour for an entire paint bucket to filter so I was assuming it’d be about the same for this system.

Jon Rose provides filters to Sumatra victims

By day’s end there were two fully operational filtration systems and a dozen people who were now well educated in the technology. I left the other eight filters with Alfri and he said that the flowing day he would gather more materials and personally distribute them to different Red Cross station around the region.”

He asked me one thing as I was leaving, “When can we get more filters?”

“I left Alfri that evening with a new mission: To get home as soon as possible and find a way to get him more filters. It took me 60 hours to finally get home. I have been home for a couple days and everything I experienced is just now sinking in. I have been tirelessly reflecting on all the things I saw. Going through every emotion known to man.

“I sit here completely humbled” – Jon Rose