DEATH TOLL TOPS 260 IN INDONESIA EARTHQUAKE

Schoolhouses were reduced to skeletal, warped frames, thousands of homes were uprooted from their foundations and an entire village was engulfed by a landslide in the wake of a devastating earthquake in a mountainous region of Indonesia.

The scope of the destruction and aftershocks of Monday’s earthquake that killed at least 268 complicated the ongoing rescue effort in Indonesia’s most populous province, as workers were hampered by blocked roads, power outages and stretched medical resources. Anxious family members awaited news of loved ones, some of whom were trapped in villages with weak phone and Internet services. Hospitals were overrun, with the injured being treated outside in makeshift tents.

After being trapped by the fallen bricks of her home, Supartika, 47, was eventually rescued by her husband and neighbors. She was taken to the hospital hours later, around 8 p.m. Monday, because of the limited number of ambulances.

“I was shocked. It was very sudden,” said Supartika, who like many Indonesians goes by only one name. Her right hand was broken, right shoulder dislocated and leg cut by broken glass. “My house is flat to the earth.”

The full extent of the damage from Monday’s shallow, magnitude 5.6 earthquake remained unclear with more than 1,000 injured and 150 still missing. Most of the dead had been crushed in collapsed buildings. Many were women and children in homes or schools that crumbled when the earthquake struck in the afternoon, Ridwan Kamil, governor of West Java province, said at a news conference.

President Joko Widodo of Indonesia on Tuesday visited Cianjur, the city closest to the epicenter, pledging to provide aid to victims to rebuild and to improve construction standards.

“It’s important to have quake-proof buildings,” he said. “We’re focusing first on opening road access in landslide-affected areas. I’ve instructed that evacuation and rescue of buried victims be prioritized.”

More than 58,000 residents were displaced from their homes, according to officials. Many of the injured were being treated in makeshift tents outside overwhelmed hospitals in Cianjur. Some victims were being transferred to nearby regions because of a shortage of medical professionals, Ridwan said.

More than 22,000 homes were damaged, at least 6,500 of them severely, officials said. In the Cianjur area, 13 schools and 10 office buildings were also hit, according to emergency officials.