Aid groups enter quake zone
Thousands need help after Indonesia shake
MEUREUDU: Humanitarian organisations descended on Indonesia’s Aceh province yesterday as the local disaster agency called for urgent food supplies and officials raced to assess the full extent of damage from an earthquake that killed more than 100 people.
Volunteers and nearly 1,500 rescue personnel concentrated their search on the hard-hit town of Meureudu in Pidie Jaya district near the epicentre of the magnitude 6.5 quake that hit before dawn on Wednesday. But the small number of heavy excavators on the scene meant progress was slow. Humanitarian assessment teams fanned out to other areas of the district.
National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said the death toll had risen to 102 and warned it could increase. The agency said more than 750 people were injured.
Search teams were using devices that detect mobile phone signals within a 100m radius to help guide their efforts as they scoured the rubble.
Those killed included very young children and the elderly.
Mohammad Jafar, 60, said his daughter, granddaughter and grandson died in the quake but he was resigned to it as “God’s will”.
He was getting ready for morning prayers when the earthquake hit. He said he and his wife managed to push their way out through the debris.
Another man said he found his 9-yearold daughter alive beneath a broken wall at his neighbour’s house.
Thousands of people are homeless or afraid to return to their houses. Officials in Aceh said more than 8,000 people spent Wednesday night in shelters in Pidie Jaya district alone.
Killer quakes occur regularly in the region, where many live with the terrifying memory of a giant Dec 26, 2004, earthquake that struck off Sumatra. The magnitude-9.1 quake triggered a devastating tsunami that killed more than 100,000 Acehnese.
Iskandar, a Disaster Mitigation Agency official in Aceh, said staple foods for women and babies are most urgently needed. He said medicines are sufficient for the time being because assistance is coming from the army, police, state-run companies and local governments.
“What’s badly needed now are staple foods such as rice, cooking oil, salted fish and other foods,” said Iskandar.
He said people had complained about a lack of clean water, but the problem has been tackled and electricity supply is returning to normal in many areas.
Mr Nugroho, at a news conference in Jakarta, listed as urgent food and clothing, specialist doctors for victims suffering fractures, medical equipment, temporary shelters and heavy excavation equipment.
The Indonesian government announced 50 tonnes of urgent aid for Aceh, including 10 generators, tents, folding beds, baby supplies and body bags.
“Every aid and civil society organisation is piling into the area with as many boxes of rice, instant noodles, blankets and other aid as they can shift,” said Paul Dillon, a spokesman for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), which has an assessment team in northern Aceh.
It will take at least two more days before there’s a fuller picture of how many people are displaced and the relief effort required, he said. On Twitter, the IOM said one mosque was sheltering 2,000 displaced women and children.
The military is setting up an emergency field hospital and sending two dozen doctors, and the health ministry is sending a medical team and medicines. The Red Cross sent aid such as water trucks on Wednesday and humanitarian group Care is leading an assessment team of four international aid groups to avoid duplication of efforts. Aid groups and others are also appealing for donations.
Scores of rescuers and giant excavators worked away at the debris of a market in Meureudu, the hard-hit town, where many shop houses collapsed.
One shop owner, Hajj Yusri Abdullah, didn’t hold out much hope of finding survivors. He said nearly two dozen bodies were pulled from the market debris the day before. They included a group of eight consisting of a newlywed couple and family members holding an ornate celebration known as Antar Dara Baro.