Staff in Padang is safe

We'd mentioned in a couple of blog entries that, because of telecommunications outages in the earthquake zone, we hadn't yet heard from our staff in the devastated city of Padang. But now we have — and not only is everyone all right, but busy working on emergency response around the clock.

First, Mercy Corps staffer Emily Rand — a Senior Program Officer in the Banda Aceh office on the northern tip of Sumatra island — gave us an update via her Twitter account:

All Mercy Corps Padang Indonesia staff accounted for. All safe and assisting others with recovery after yesterdays earth quake!

And then, just a couple hours ago, we heard from Mercy Corps Program Director Malka Older, who'd just arrived in Padang from Jakarta.

So our staff is safe and, even though it's about 3:00 A.M. in Padang right now, it's almost certain they're still at the office working.