Lensi Tweed, a Blackhawk Food Court server, was one of many people whose lives drastically changed after December’s tsunami that hit Asia and Africa.

She lost more than 100 friends and family members to the devastation.

On Monday, nearly 300 people were killed in Banda Aceh, Indonesia in an earthquake measuring 8.7 on the Richter scale. Observations that the earthquake could cause another tsunami brought immediate concern to many with family in this area, including Tweed.

“At first when she found out, she was literally shaken by the news and worried about what would happen,” Blackhawk manager Mary Lou Rempfer said.

Rempfer said Tweed contacted her sister by cell phone, and she said the family was not harmed. But she said people do not know where to go for safety at this point.

Tweed returned home from Indonesia 10 days ago. She said she brought more than $10,000 worth of donations to Banda Aceh, where she stayed for six weeks and brought relief to many.

“It’s heartbreaking because she was doing so well when she came back,” Rempfer said. “It was a release for her.”

Tweed said she was able to donate money collected from various organizations, friends, family and DeKalb residents to more than 350 families who then were able to build shelter. Though the new homes weren’t luxurious, Tweed said the homes were much more suitable for the families who had been living in tents for quite some time.

“When I got there, the first thing that came to my mind was the huge destruction,” Tweed said. “Eighty percent of the town was gone.”

Of the approximately 400,000 residents in Banda Aceh, almost a quarter were found dead.

Tweed said her grandfather, uncle, aunt and many other relatives are still missing.

“The first thing that came to my mind is that I hope this will never happen again,” Tweed said. “They never found my missing relatives; we had been trying and trying to find them. We had to stop looking for them.”

Tweed said a lot of the relatives who she also thought survived the devastation had died several days later because of infection and lack of medical help.

“After I saw what happened, I accepted what had happened to my relatives,” Tweed said. “I’ve asked everyone there, ‘How many in your family are gone?’ They would say, ‘All of them,’ and I finally stopped asking.”

Tweed said she most likely will not be traveling back again this year, but she does have plans to do so next year.

Tweed said she wanted to thank all those friends, family and organizations who helped her in her time of need. She said she would especially like to thank: her manager Rempfer, Dr. Panayiotis M. Zavos and Associates from the Zavos Diagnostic Laboratorial, Inc. in Lexington, Ky., the DeKalb County Bar Association, The Cosentino Law Firm in DeKalb and The Suter Company, Inc. in DeKalb.

“One thing I’ve learned is you have to have faith to accept this,” Tweed said. “I know there has to be some reason for this, but I don’t know what it is. I know we have a good society that helps each other so that no one is left behind. The good I saw when I was there was that no one was left depressed or alone – everyone worked together.”

Anne Seitzinger, director of the Study Abroad Office, said to the university’s knowledge, no NIU faculty or staff members were in Thailand, Indonesia or Sri Lanka at the time of Monday’s earthquake.