ASIA NEWS
OCTOBER 1, 2009, 2:50 P.M. ET
Indonesia Quake Kills Hundreds and Traps Many More
By TOM WRIGHT and YAYU YUNIAR
PADANG, Indonesia -- At least 777 people were dead and an unknown number of people remained buried under rubble a day after a massive earthquake rocked western Indonesia, leaving hospitals overwhelmed with victims and relief workers struggling to assess the full scale of the disaster.
Authorities said they expected the death toll from Wednesday's 7.6-magnitude quake to keep rising as more bodies were recovered with the help of excavators from hundreds of collapsed buildings in this city and elsewhere.
The latest toll came from an Indonesian government official, speaking to the Associated Press condition of anonymity Thursday because he was not authorized to give information to the media.
U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes told reporters Thursday that he estimated that the toll had risen to 1,100 killed – and was expected to rise even higher.
In one three-story private school that collapsed, about 60 people were trapped inside, with at least 24 people confirmed dead. Among the victims were two women, one dressed in brown and clasping another in a white Muslim veil, lying beside the ruins. Both were covered in light dust.
The Dr. M. Djamil hospital, the largest public hospital in the city, was overrun with injured and the dead. The hospital itself suffered major damage, with upper floors collapsing, forcing doctors to treat patients outside in makeshift tents whose floors were covered with a mix of bloody swabs, discarded syringes and m&d from the intermittent rain. An anesthetist at the hospital said it was running low on liquid for intravenous drips and hoped the government or donors would send more soon.
"We are overwhelmed" with victims and lack of clean water, electricity and telecommunications, Mayor Fauzi Bahar said, according to the Associated Press. "We really need help. We call on people to come to Padang to evacuate bodies and help the injured."
Besides the expected casualties in Padang, officials said at least 150 people died in Pariaman, a rural town of about 80,000 people that was closest to the epicenter, north of Padang. Officials received reports of buildings destroyed there but little aid was getting through, eyewitnesses said, raising fears that casualty figures would escalate over the coming days.
Relief workers were hopeful they'd have a clearer picture of the damage across the region on Friday, as roads were cleared and more rescue crews arrived. Rescuers believed it was increasingly unlikely victims still buried under rubble would be brought out alive.
"Let's be prepared for the worst," said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Jakarta as he prepared to fly to Padang, a coastal city of 750,000 that serves as the capital of Indonesia's West Sumatra province. "We will do everything we can to help the victims," he said.
He ordered the military to deploy emergency response teams from other parts of the country, and the government approved 250 billion rupiah (about $26 million) in cash aid for victims. Officials said the cost of repairs of infrastructure and transport facilities damaged by the quake is still being calculated.
The disaster was a reminder that, for all of Indonesia's economic progress in recent years, it remains unusually vulnerable to natural disasters that test the government's resources. A vast archipelago nation of islands, it sits astride tectonic fault lines and volcanic zones that have produced a bewildering number of natural emergencies in recent years, including several major earthquakes and the December 2004 tsunami that left more than 200,000 people dead across the region.
Although Indonesia has emerged as a favorite of investors over the past year, in part because its economy continued to grow while others slipped into recession, it remains "a very poor country," says Tim Condon, an economist at ING in Singapore. Unlike other emerging Asian powers such as China, it continues to underinvest in infrastructure including hospitals, roads and power supplies that could help authorities better manage the country's unusual number of disasters.
Marlis Rahman, vice governor of West Sumatra province, said he believed the provincial government had done all it could so far in the wake of the disaster. In recent years, he said, the province has run courses for students and employees to teach them to quickly leave buildings in the event of an earthquake - a measure he believes saved lives this time. Padang's residents are used to frequent tremors since they live close to an active fault line and in the past ignored them, he said.
He said he believed medical supplies were still adequate and that more will be reaching Padang from Jakarta on Friday, and a floating navy hospital by the weekend. The province hopes to restore power and the telecommunications network -- both of which have been severely disrupted -- within the next couple of days.
Rescue efforts were complicated by aftershocks that caused further panic across western Sumatra. Early Thursday, another powerful earthquake struck about 180 miles from Wednesday's epicenter, the U.S. Geological Survey said. It damaged 1,100 buildings but there were no reports of deaths, the AP said.
In Padang, meanwhile, the buildings destroyed by the initial large quake included a computer school, a car financing company, and the busy Ambacang Hotel, where staff said about two-thirds of the hotel's 102 rooms were full at the time the earthquake hit. About 80 guests were attending a local government seminar on how to improve fishing methods while other patrons played billiards.
After the quake brought the six-story hotel crashing down, eight people were brought out, only two of them alive, said Zul Aliman, head of the civil police for West Sumatra province, who was overseeing the salvage operations.
At one point Thursday, a Komatsu digger rammed into the building, trying to get to rooms behind where rescuers had earlier heard cries for help. Part of the structure then collapsed, throwing dust and water over spectators who police allowed to stand only a few meters away. Rescue workers began moving closer to the seminar rooms and the uncovering of bodies but said they felt it unlikely anyone would still be alive.
Friska Yulianita, a 22-year-old who had traveled 70 kilometers from a village outside Padang for the agriculutral seminar, was one of the people who escaped.
She was sitting near the door of the seminar when the quake hit and ran out toward the lobby. The next thing she remembers, she said, she was being dug out by rescuers.
"Everyone else must have died," she said from her bed at Dr. M. Djamil hospital -- a dirty mattress on the floor covered with pictures of the cartoon character Snoopy. She was unable to open her eyes because of bruising and had a broken leg. She called repeatedly for a nurse without being heeded.
—Patrick Barta contributed to this article.
OCTOBER 1, 2009, 2:50 P.M. ET
Indonesia Quake Kills Hundreds and Traps Many More
By TOM WRIGHT and YAYU YUNIAR
PADANG, Indonesia -- At least 777 people were dead and an unknown number of people remained buried under rubble a day after a massive earthquake rocked western Indonesia, leaving hospitals overwhelmed with victims and relief workers struggling to assess the full scale of the disaster.
Authorities said they expected the death toll from Wednesday's 7.6-magnitude quake to keep rising as more bodies were recovered with the help of excavators from hundreds of collapsed buildings in this city and elsewhere.
The latest toll came from an Indonesian government official, speaking to the Associated Press condition of anonymity Thursday because he was not authorized to give information to the media.
U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes told reporters Thursday that he estimated that the toll had risen to 1,100 killed – and was expected to rise even higher.
In one three-story private school that collapsed, about 60 people were trapped inside, with at least 24 people confirmed dead. Among the victims were two women, one dressed in brown and clasping another in a white Muslim veil, lying beside the ruins. Both were covered in light dust.
The Dr. M. Djamil hospital, the largest public hospital in the city, was overrun with injured and the dead. The hospital itself suffered major damage, with upper floors collapsing, forcing doctors to treat patients outside in makeshift tents whose floors were covered with a mix of bloody swabs, discarded syringes and m&d from the intermittent rain. An anesthetist at the hospital said it was running low on liquid for intravenous drips and hoped the government or donors would send more soon.
"We are overwhelmed" with victims and lack of clean water, electricity and telecommunications, Mayor Fauzi Bahar said, according to the Associated Press. "We really need help. We call on people to come to Padang to evacuate bodies and help the injured."
Besides the expected casualties in Padang, officials said at least 150 people died in Pariaman, a rural town of about 80,000 people that was closest to the epicenter, north of Padang. Officials received reports of buildings destroyed there but little aid was getting through, eyewitnesses said, raising fears that casualty figures would escalate over the coming days.
Relief workers were hopeful they'd have a clearer picture of the damage across the region on Friday, as roads were cleared and more rescue crews arrived. Rescuers believed it was increasingly unlikely victims still buried under rubble would be brought out alive.
"Let's be prepared for the worst," said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Jakarta as he prepared to fly to Padang, a coastal city of 750,000 that serves as the capital of Indonesia's West Sumatra province. "We will do everything we can to help the victims," he said.
He ordered the military to deploy emergency response teams from other parts of the country, and the government approved 250 billion rupiah (about $26 million) in cash aid for victims. Officials said the cost of repairs of infrastructure and transport facilities damaged by the quake is still being calculated.
The disaster was a reminder that, for all of Indonesia's economic progress in recent years, it remains unusually vulnerable to natural disasters that test the government's resources. A vast archipelago nation of islands, it sits astride tectonic fault lines and volcanic zones that have produced a bewildering number of natural emergencies in recent years, including several major earthquakes and the December 2004 tsunami that left more than 200,000 people dead across the region.
Although Indonesia has emerged as a favorite of investors over the past year, in part because its economy continued to grow while others slipped into recession, it remains "a very poor country," says Tim Condon, an economist at ING in Singapore. Unlike other emerging Asian powers such as China, it continues to underinvest in infrastructure including hospitals, roads and power supplies that could help authorities better manage the country's unusual number of disasters.
Marlis Rahman, vice governor of West Sumatra province, said he believed the provincial government had done all it could so far in the wake of the disaster. In recent years, he said, the province has run courses for students and employees to teach them to quickly leave buildings in the event of an earthquake - a measure he believes saved lives this time. Padang's residents are used to frequent tremors since they live close to an active fault line and in the past ignored them, he said.
He said he believed medical supplies were still adequate and that more will be reaching Padang from Jakarta on Friday, and a floating navy hospital by the weekend. The province hopes to restore power and the telecommunications network -- both of which have been severely disrupted -- within the next couple of days.
Rescue efforts were complicated by aftershocks that caused further panic across western Sumatra. Early Thursday, another powerful earthquake struck about 180 miles from Wednesday's epicenter, the U.S. Geological Survey said. It damaged 1,100 buildings but there were no reports of deaths, the AP said.
In Padang, meanwhile, the buildings destroyed by the initial large quake included a computer school, a car financing company, and the busy Ambacang Hotel, where staff said about two-thirds of the hotel's 102 rooms were full at the time the earthquake hit. About 80 guests were attending a local government seminar on how to improve fishing methods while other patrons played billiards.
After the quake brought the six-story hotel crashing down, eight people were brought out, only two of them alive, said Zul Aliman, head of the civil police for West Sumatra province, who was overseeing the salvage operations.
At one point Thursday, a Komatsu digger rammed into the building, trying to get to rooms behind where rescuers had earlier heard cries for help. Part of the structure then collapsed, throwing dust and water over spectators who police allowed to stand only a few meters away. Rescue workers began moving closer to the seminar rooms and the uncovering of bodies but said they felt it unlikely anyone would still be alive.
Friska Yulianita, a 22-year-old who had traveled 70 kilometers from a village outside Padang for the agriculutral seminar, was one of the people who escaped.
She was sitting near the door of the seminar when the quake hit and ran out toward the lobby. The next thing she remembers, she said, she was being dug out by rescuers.
"Everyone else must have died," she said from her bed at Dr. M. Djamil hospital -- a dirty mattress on the floor covered with pictures of the cartoon character Snoopy. She was unable to open her eyes because of bruising and had a broken leg. She called repeatedly for a nurse without being heeded.
—Patrick Barta contributed to this article.
