Sumatra Devastation Roundup

Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl [remember him?] was vacationing here and said the area reminded him of Germany after World War II.

Riza, a 26-year-old clothes vendor, said that at about 8 a.m. she was enjoying the holiday in bed when suddenly she saw walls of water, mud, rocks and branches rushing into the neighborhood. People were screaming and running. Riza, who was living in a rented house near the coast in Banda Aceh with three friends, dashed up to the second floor of a neighbor's house and stood on top of a cupboard.

... The current swept her and her friends off their perch. As Riza was drifting, she saw her neighbors, two girls -- twins -- and their mother. Riza, who can swim, managed to help the girls

... As she struggled for her own life and that of the twins, she said a large snake as long as a telephone pole approached her. She and the nine-year-olds rested on the reptile, which was drifting along with the current.