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Up to 4,000 buried in Indonesian quake rubble
Source: CNN, 3 Oct 09
PADANG, Indonesia (CNN) — As many as 4,000 people could be buried under the rubble in the aftermath of the devastating earthquakes in Indonesia, United Nations officials said Saturday. An area that now looks like a flattened mess of destruction was, just days ago, a group of three villages. Officials believe 90 percent of the residents — as many as a few hundred people — were buried, just one piece of the devastation from two large earthquakes that struck Indonesia in as many days. The stench of dead bodies fills the air. Indonesia’s health ministry and ministry of social affairs said Friday they believe thousands remain buried beneath rubble.
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/10/03/indonesia.earthquake/index.html
Indonesia quake obliterates villages, aid needed
Source: Reuters
BALANTIAK, Indonesia, Oct 3 (Reuters) – Rescue teams pushed deeper into Indonesia’s earthquake-hit Sumatra on Saturday, finding entire villages obliterated by landslides and survivors desperate for aid three days after the tremor.
In the city of Padang rescuers were still combing through collapsed buildings for thousands of people feared buried beneath the wreckage. The colossal damage that destroyed buildings and roads was hampering the aid effort.
In remoter areas outside Padang the full scale of the disaster was only starting to become clear, with villages wiped out and survivors drinking coconut water after their drinking sources were contaminated.
“In my village, 75 people were buried. There are about 300 people missing from this whole area. We need tents and excavators to get the bodies but the roads are cut off,” said Ogi Martapela, 28, who said his older brother died in the landslide.
Another resident said it was too late for aid.
“Don’t bother trying to bring aid up there,” said Afiwardi, who pointed past a landslide that cut off a road. “Everyone is dead.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/homepageCrisis/idUSSP462922._CH_.2400
VIDEO YOUTUBE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcH_eOZ0T1g
Thousands of people may have died in remote village areas when a powerful earthquake struck Sumatra last week, emergency workers and officials fear.
Source: BBC, 3 Oct 09
Reports suggest some villages were razed to the ground, with access roads torn apart by the quake preventing medical teams reaching the injured.
Aid is now arriving in Indonesia, but hopes are fading of finding survivors in the worst-hit city of Padang.
More than 1,000 people have died in the city. About 3,000 others are missing.
“All the houses seem to have been swallowed by earth,” a health ministry official in the village of Pulao Aik told the Associated Press.
Thirteen-year-old Nisrina is one of the injured. Her foot was crushed and has been amputated above the ankle.
But she was bravely determined to tell me her story in English.
She was sitting an English exam when the tremors started. The school building collapsed on top of her. She was trapped for four hours before police and her father, working together, managed to free her.
“It’s so hard to explain,” she said. “I didn’t believe I would ever be safe. I was so scared.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8288525.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8287087.stm
2nd quake shakes Indonesia after temblor kills 529
In Padang, collapsed or seriously damaged buildings included hospitals, mosques, a mall and a school. TVOne network footage showed heavy equipment breaking through layers of cement in search of more than 30 students it said were missing from the school, where they were taking after-school classes.
Parents of missing students stayed up all night, waiting for signs of life.
“My daughter’s face keeps appearing in my eyes … my mind. I cannot sleep, I’m waiting here to see her again,” a woman who identified herself only as Imelda told TVOne, tears rolling down her face. She said her 12-year-old daughter Yolanda was in the school for science lessons.
“She is a good daughter and very smart. I really love her. Please, God help her,” she said.
http://www.kansas.com/wireupdates/story/992318.html
Image Source: BBC
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