Quake toll expected to triple
BRISBANE: A Melbourne aid worker helping Indonesian officials get relief to locals after the deadly Lombok earthquake expects the death toll to triple.
Former policeman and child protection charity founder Glen Hulley yesterday said many people were missing and families were sleeping on the streets or in fields after 90% of buildings in the northwest town of Tanjung and surrounding region were flattened on Sunday (local time).
The official death toll is 98. ‘‘We’re expecting that to double or triple within the next 24 or 48 hours as we’re able to coordinate military in and begin searching many of these buildings,’’ Mr Hulley told AAP yesterday.
A majority of the people who make up the official death toll are from Tanjung, about 5km from the epicentre of the magnitude 7 earthquake.
Only a small number of buildings there have been searched by crews looking for survivors.
‘‘Only about 5% of those buildings have been able to be searched . . . the Government is preparing for the worst,’’ he added.
He and his Project Karma staff were helping Indonesian officials coordinate their response.
The hospital in Tanjung was now rubble and paramedics were grappling with damaged roads as they tried to get the injured to Mataram, in the island’s west.
‘‘We’ve got ambulances constantly coming and going because there’s no capacity in Tanjung to be able to provide for the injuries, so they’re sending them all to Mataram and even that hospital is completely overrun,’’ Hulley said.
Doctors, paramedics and triage nurses from across the globe were travelling to Lombok to volunteer in Tanjung and assist Indonesian officials as they coordinated a response.
Hulley said he had been confronted by destruction at every turn.
‘‘Either homes are completely destroyed or they’re damaged beyond repair,’’ he said.
‘‘People are just sleeping out in the streets or in the fields.’’
Finding a safe potable water source and accessible to government trucks to then supply unofficial evacuation centres was a priority. — AAP