Rumble in Lombok
People crowding the beach as they wait to be evacuated from Gili Trawangan island to neighbouring Lombok island a day after a 6.9 magnitude earthquake struck the area.
TANjuNg: The death toll from a powerful earthquake on the Indonesian island of Lombok rose above 130 as authorities appealed for food, clean water and medical help for some 156,000 people forced from their homes.
Many frightened, displaced villagers were staying under tents or tarpaulins dotted along roads or in parched rice fields, and makeshift medical facilities had been set up to treat the injured.
Evacuees in some encampments said they were running out of food, while others were suffering psychological trauma after the 6.9-magnitude quake, which struck just one week after another tremor surged through the island and killed 17.
“We still need long-term aid, even though we have already received help from various (regional) governments,” national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said yesterday.
Around 1,477 people were severely injured in the disaster, with tens of thousands of homes damaged, and authorities said the toll of 131 was likely to rise.
Workers with heavy machinery were searching the rubble of homes, schools and mosques, with hope of finding any survivors fading.
“The corpses are starting to smell and we believe some of the people buried are still alive – that’s why it’s a critical time,” Sutopo said.
Local authorities, international relief groups and the central government have begun organising aid, but shattered roads have slowed efforts to reach survivors in the mountainous north and east of Lombok, which bore the brunt of the quake.
Muhammad Zainul Majdi, governor of the West Nusa Tenggara region which covers Lombok, said there was a dire need for medical staff, food and medicine in the worst-hit places.
Hundreds of bloodied and bandaged victims have been treated outside damaged hospitals in the island’s main city of Mataram and other badly affected areas.
“We have limited human resources. Some paramedics have to be at the shelters, some need to be mobile,” Muhammad Zainul said.
“The scale of this quake is massive for us here in West Nusa Tenggara, this is our first experience.”
Some evacuees were grappling with the traumatic scenes of death and destruction.
“I saw my neighbour get stuck in the rubble and die. He asked me for help but I couldn’t help him, we just ran to help ourselves,” Johriah, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, said tearfully.
The Indonesian Red Cross said it had set up 10 mobile clinics in the north of the island.