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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Post Falls man getting firsthand view of disaster


Andrew Trecker, son of Katherine Kosareff of Post Falls, stands by his bunk aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, which is now serving in the Indian Ocean and helping with tsunami relief efforts. Andrew Trecker, son of Katherine Kosareff of Post Falls, stands by his bunk aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, which is now serving in the Indian Ocean and helping with tsunami relief efforts. 
 (Photo courtesy of Andrew Trecker Photo courtesy of Andrew Trecker / The Spokesman-Review)
Taryn Brodwater Staff writer

Up until a year ago, Andrew Trecker had never traveled far from home.

Now he’s witnessing firsthand the devastating wake of a tsunami that left the number of dead seven times greater than his hometown of Post Falls.

The 21-year-old Navy sailor is aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln in the waters of Indonesia and Thailand. The ship was in port at Hong Kong but deployed after the disaster to provide aid to survivors.

His mother, a teacher at River City Middle School in Post Falls, read an e-mail from her son to her students on Tuesday. Another teacher used the e-mail for a current events lesson.

The shocking honesty of the e-mail made the tragedy hundreds and hundreds of miles away more relevant to the students, said Trecker’s mother, Katherine Kosareff. The vivid images in her son’s e-mail, like his description of “a dead child floating in the water past our ship,” hit her like a rock.

He wrote they were flying supplies and some of his shipmates to the coast to help survivors and help rebuild the communities torn apart by the giant waves. He said the people were so hungry, so desperate, that they were even taking the boxed lunches that belonged to the American pilots.

“There is just absolutely no food over there,” he wrote, “and the food that is over there is contaminated, so some of the people are eating that, then getting so sick, then dying.”

He said the death toll continues to climb.

“We helped out a village of 50,000 people,” he said. “And now there are only 1,000 people still alive on that island. Really scary if you think about it, makes you feel good to be alive.”

Kosareff said she worries about the emotional toll the experience will take on her son. She’s been told that it’s worse than a war zone because of the number of dead, especially the number of children and women who were victims.

Despite her worries, Kosareff said she is extremely proud of her son and what they are doing.

“People say our country isn’t doing enough,” Kosareff said. “They don’t know.”

Her son told her stories about how the sailors gave away the Christmas packages they’d been sent from home. The beef jerky Trecker’s family sent to him was handed out to tsunami survivors.

On the ship, they’ve baked hundreds of loaves of bread and made salt water drinkable. The sailors were polled to determine what skills each had and how they could help the communities begin to rebuild.

The e-mails Kosareff receives from her son give her peace of mind.

“That’s the only way I can keep my sanity about my son and not be so concerned about him,” she said. “He’s 21, but he’s still my baby.”