Indonesia quake buries faithful
At least 91 confirmed dead, hundreds reported injured
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP/AFP) – Efforts to find victims in the rubble of a mosque collapsed by Sunday's earthquake in north Lombok has been hampered by the lack of heavy equipment, an Indonesian disaster agency official said.
National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said at a news conference Monday afternoon the current toll of 91 dead will “definitely increase,” citing the mosque as an example of the devastation still being accounted for.
Nguroho said the devastation has isolated hard-hit areas from rescuers and made distribution of resources difficult.
He said reports that seven Indonesian tourists were killed on Gili Trawangan island near Lombok have not been verified yet.
Some 900 tourists were being evacuated from tiny Gili Islands on Monday after the Lombok quake, with 200
“domestic and foreign” tourists already taken off the islands.
“There are 700 more tourists still waiting to be evacuated,” he added.
The 6.9 magnitude earthquake was the second deadly quake in a week to hit Lombok. A July 29 quake killed 16 people and damaged hundreds of houses, some of which collapsed in Sunday evening's temblor, killing those inside.
Nugroho told a news conference that damage was “massive” in the north of Lombok.
Rescuers searched for survivors in the rubble of houses, mosques, and schools that were among the thousands of buildings destroyed in the disaster that struck on Sunday evening.
"The search and rescue team is still scouring the scene and evacuating (people)," Nugroho said.
"We estimate the number of victims will rise."
The quake triggered a tsunami warning, which was later cancelled, and was also felt on the neighboring island of Bali, one of Southeast Asia's leading destinations, where tourists ran onto the streets as the tremor struck.
An Australian man who manages a resort on Lombok said he and his family made a 3-kilometer dash up a mountain to escape a potential tsunami.
Evan Burns, who manages a resort on Lombok, says his house is now uninhabitable, having sustained severe structural damage from the quake that hit the island.
The shallow 6.9-magnitude quake sent thousands of Lombok residents and tourists scrambling outdoors, where many spent the night as strong aftershocks including one of 5.3-magnitude continued to rattle the island.
The quake knocked out power in many areas, and parts of Lombok remained without electricity on Monday.
Hundreds of bloodied and bandaged victims were treated outside damaged hospitals in the main city Mataram and other hard-hit parts of the island.
Patients lay on beds under makeshift wards sent up in tents, surrounded by drip stands and monitors, as doctors in blue scrubs attended to them.
"Many injured people are being treated outside of hospitals and health clinics because the buildings were damaged," Nugroho said.
Most of the victims were in the mountainous north and east of the island, away from the main tourist spots and coastal districts in the south and west.
Najmul Akhyar, the head of North Lombok district, estimated that 80 percent of that region was damaged by the quake.
"We need heavy equipment because some mosques have collapsed and we suspect some worshippers are still trapped inside," he told Metro TV.
In the latest quake, facilities at Lombok's main airport were unaffected, although passengers were briefly evacuated from the main terminal.
Singapore's Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam, who was in Lombok for a security conference when the earthquake struck, described on Facebook how his hotel room on the 10th floor shook violently.
"Walls cracked, it was quite impossible to stand up," he said.
Bali's international airport suffered damage to its terminal but the runway was unaffected and operations had returned to normal, disaster agency officials said.
Thousands of homes and buildings were damaged and 20,000 people are in temporary shelters.
Thousands of people are now trying to get off the island, she said, describing the mood as both somber and panicked.