NIGHT fell over the waters at Lamno, in the Regency of Aceh Jaya. The fishing boat we were on, with a cargo capacity of 20 tons, pulled up to the emergency dock on Monday two weeks ago. The six-and-a-half hour trip from Banda Aceh to Lamno, through choppy seas, was finally over.

The skeleton of a reinforced-concrete bridge could be seen not far from where we had docked. The bridge, which connected Lamno with Meulaboh, the second largest ci