Rescuers in Indonesia continued digging yesterday to reach dozens buried by a major earthquake that killed at least 63 people as anger mounted at the slow response by authorities. Police and troops cleared boulders and mounds of earth in the village of Cikangkareng south of the capital Jakarta in a frantic bid to reach those trapped following Wednesday’s 7.0-magnitude quake, officials said.
“At least 59 people were killed [throughout Java] ... 37 are still trapped [in Cikangkareng],” disaster management agency spokesman Priyadi Kardono told reporters.
The quake, which struck off the south coast of Java, triggered a landslide in the village that stripped hillsides bare and buried entire families.
“We’ve been using heavy machinery for the rescue effort,” Kardono said, after earlier attempts were hampered by poor access, forcing rescuers to pick through the rubble with bare hands, hoes and improvised tools.
Damage from the quake, which caused a panicked rush from swaying buildings in Jakarta, was spread throughout Indonesia’s main island of Java. At least 30,000 homes had been damaged and 5,000 people displaced, officials said.
In the village of Cipanas in West Java Province, hundreds of residents whose homes were destroyed set up a makeshift camp in surrounding fields.
Suryati, a 75-year-old villager, said locals had received little help from the government or aid organizations. The only assistance to have arrived came a day after the quake, she said.
“The help should have come on the day of the disaster. Although we have received rice, we still need more medical supplies,” she said.
“I have lost my house. That’s the only thing that I have,” she said, in tears.
In Cikadeu village in the nearby district of Tasikmalaya, one of the worst-hit by the quake, village chief Memet Tanuwijaya said locals were having trouble finding shelter as they waited for outside assistance.
“The mosque, which could have been our shelter during the night, has been destroyed. And there is only a small tent for all 28 families in the village,” Tanuwijaya said. “Hopefully assistance will come soon enough to provide us with tents, food and medical supplies.”
Kardono said the vast spread of the damage across Java — a fertile, hilly and densely populated island of around 125 million people — as well as limited personnel had slowed the response.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said his country offered assistance but Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has said Indonesia can go it alone.
The West Java provincial administration has promised to allocate 90 billion rupiah (US$8.8 million) of recovery aid, according to the Koran Tempo newspaper, while Yudhoyono promised an additional 5 billion rupiah.
Indonesia sits on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, where several tectonic plates converge.
A 7.7-magnitude quake triggered a tsunami off southern Java in 2006, killing 596 people and displacing about 74,000.
A massive quake off the coast of the island of Sumatra in 2004 triggered a catastrophic tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people around Asia, including 168,000 in Indonesia.
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