China Daily Global Edition (USA)
Rescuers struggle to assess PNG quake damage
SYDNEY — Whole villages were flattened and water sources spoiled by a powerful earthquake that killed at least 20 people, residents said on Wednesday, as rescuers struggled to reach the hardest-hit areas in Papua New Guinea’s remote, mountainous highlands.
The PNG Post-Courier newspaper on Tuesday said more than 30 people may have died, but on Wednesday it reported that only 14 victims had been confirmed, in the Southern Highlands and Hela province.
All of the victims were killed when their houses collapsed as they slept, it said.
The PNG police said in a statement it understood more than 20 lives had been lost. However, no official government death toll has yet been provided.
Most of the confirmed fatalities were in or around the provincial capital of Mendi, where television pictures showed collapsed buildings and landslides, and the town of Tari, according to authorities and residents contacted by Reuters.
One person was killed in Tari and another five were killed in a landslide in a nearby village, a resident said.
Elsewhere, rivers had silted up or become blocked, villages were damaged and gardens and water tanks were destroyed, though the biggest landslides hit sparsely populated areas, according to Mission Aviation Fellowship, an air transport operator that flew a three-hour survey on Tuesday.
A cloudy morning and fog in the afternoon on Wednesday hampered official efforts to assess damage by helicopter, let alone distribute aid, said Kaigabu Kamnanaya, Director of Risk Management at Papua New Guinea’s National Disaster Centre.
Aerial surveillance
Miners and oil and gas companies were also assessing the damage, which included ensuring a 700-kilometer gas pipeline that connects to a coastal liquefaction plant was intact before it could be reopened.
Australia sent a C-130 military transport plane to help with aerial surveillance. The office of Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said it would likely take days before the extent of the damage was clear.
A police officer in Mendi said landslides had buried homes and blocked a river residents worried could flood the town.
“We are really in deep fear,” said police sergeant Naring Bongi. “It continues to be active. We didn’t sleep well and stayed awake until daybreak ... no helicopters or government officials have come to our assistance.”
Medical supplies and heavy equipment to clear landslides were also needed, said James Justin, a spokesman for provincial MP Manasseh Makiba, as well as food in places where productive gardens had been wrecked.