In the aftermath of a major earthquake that struck the Indonesian island of Java and killed at least 64 people has assessed needs and is delivering aid to survivors.
We're concentrating on many ways to help survivors, including health and nutrition efforts. On September 18, we distributed a week's supply of drinking water to 333 households in one of the most-devastated areas. We're continuing to focus on other affected areas where the clean water supply has been interrupted, placing families at risk for illness. Our teams have also reached out to microfinance institutions, which serve the needs of many small businesses in the earthquake zone, to see how we can help them rebuild and begin serving clients once again.
You can help us speed relief and other assistance to disaster survivors with a donation to our emergency response efforts.
The 7.3-magnitude earthquake, which devastated villages on Wednesday and was strongly felt in Indonesia’s capital of Jakarta, buried homes and injured at least 400 people. The toll continues to rise, and the needs of survivors are many.
Mercy Corps sent a three-person assessment team to the most-affected areas within 24 hours of the earthquake, and immediately began to work alongside international, local and governmental organizations in a coordinated response. You can read an on-the-ground account from one of our emergency responders here.
“There are reports of problems with drinking water and sanitation,” said Sean Granville-Ross, Mercy Corps Indonesia Country Director. “And those reports are also showing large numbers of houses and schools destroyed or damaged, so there will be a need for reconstruction.”
Mercy Corps Indonesia’s headquarters is located in Jakarta, and we work throughout many cities and towns on Java. Our staff — all of whom are accounted for — numbers more than 80 on the island.
Our disaster response in Indonesia has been widespread, quick and efficient: over the last several years, we’ve rushed lifesaving assistance to survivors of the Indian Ocean tsunami, severe flooding in Jakarta and two earthquakes that shook the region.
Today, we’re counting on you to help us mount another response for families who have lost everything. Please donate to speed relief now
Friday, October 16, 2009
The Padang Earthquake Indonesia Disaster.
As many of you have probably heard, there was an earthquake in Padang, West Sumatra, Sumatra Barat, in Indonesia. It was a 7.8.
It caused so much destruction; Buildings collapsed, glass shattered, and many people, did not make it.
Over 500 people died that day. Some were children. Middle school even, it just breaks my heart to see all their parents sob over them. I want to make a difference. That’s why I’m writing this on iReport. These people deserve to be heard. Their souls are broken into different hopeless fragments & they need your help. Their Hungry, thirsty, homeless, no clothes, and they don’t’ have enough money.
We need someone to make a difference, we are one world, and though all of us are different, we have more things in common, then things that are different.
We should help our brothers and sisters, we are not the same color, the same hair color, we don’t have the same eye color, we are very different people. But the thing is, we ARE people, we should help each and other out, to make this world a peaceful place.
After the disaster, there were survivors, but it was too late, they were trapped, under buildings; the tractor couldn’t lift the buildings and bricks off them, so they had to pull people, legs first. Can you imagine all the pain and suffering?
They managed to survive through the chaos, okay. But how will they survive AFTER the chaos? They need our help.
We need to make a difference, we have to join hands with our brothers and sisters, whether you chip in a little money, or a lot, the point is you CHIPPED IN, you made a change, you helped, and that’s what counts.
I'm just an 11 year old, I know. But I'm an 11 year old who knows, we need to make a difference now.
It caused so much destruction; Buildings collapsed, glass shattered, and many people, did not make it.
Over 500 people died that day. Some were children. Middle school even, it just breaks my heart to see all their parents sob over them. I want to make a difference. That’s why I’m writing this on iReport. These people deserve to be heard. Their souls are broken into different hopeless fragments & they need your help. Their Hungry, thirsty, homeless, no clothes, and they don’t’ have enough money.
We need someone to make a difference, we are one world, and though all of us are different, we have more things in common, then things that are different.
We should help our brothers and sisters, we are not the same color, the same hair color, we don’t have the same eye color, we are very different people. But the thing is, we ARE people, we should help each and other out, to make this world a peaceful place.
After the disaster, there were survivors, but it was too late, they were trapped, under buildings; the tractor couldn’t lift the buildings and bricks off them, so they had to pull people, legs first. Can you imagine all the pain and suffering?
They managed to survive through the chaos, okay. But how will they survive AFTER the chaos? They need our help.
We need to make a difference, we have to join hands with our brothers and sisters, whether you chip in a little money, or a lot, the point is you CHIPPED IN, you made a change, you helped, and that’s what counts.
I'm just an 11 year old, I know. But I'm an 11 year old who knows, we need to make a difference now.
Rocky Plaza Hotel Padang Description
Padang is the capital of West Sumatra in Indonesia. This place is famous mainly because of spicy local cuisine. Tourists come here to visit the beautiful landscapes and also because Padang act as a transit point for various places of interest. It has an incredible shopping place with specialization in textiles and finely worked basket ware. Rocky Plaza Hotel Padang in Padang, considered as one of the best Hotels in Madang, is situated in this wonderful place.
Indonesia's Padang, scene of devastation
Padang's inhabitants were well aware of the dangers of living on top of one of the world's most active fault lines, but the huge earthquake that struck their port city still took most by surprise as it wreaked devastation and death.This quake was much stronger than any I had ever felt before," said local resident Anas Taylor, 54.
"I saw the road move up and down like a wave. The ground was not just shaking but actually jumping up and down. It's by far the worst I've ever seen," he told Reuters.
Officials estimate that thousands are trapped under rubble and possibly dead after hundreds of houses and multi-storey buildings collapsed from the 7.6 magnitude quake, which struck on Wednesday afternoon and was followed by aftershocks.
Padang, these days a minor port city, is circled by hills. Its residents fled to higher ground and open spaces in panic when the quake struck, and many chose to sleep out in the open despite heavy rain rather than risk returning indoors.Arriving at Padang airport from Jakarta, this reporter encountered scenes of chaos.
Hundreds of people had placed prayer mats on the ground outside the airport to sleep in the open, shops had run out of water, and desperate residents scrambled for seats on planes to flee the devastation.
Few cars or taxis were willing to drive into the city centre. Petrol had run out at many stations or else could not be pumped because the power was down.
THOUSANDS TRYING TO LEAVE
"It's getting nasty in town. It's chaos. There's no fuel, people are looting. It's getting worse because people have no food, no money. There's thousands trying to leave town, the roads are blocked," said American Greg Hunt, 38.
"I have been through quakes here before and this was the worst. There is blood everywhere, people with their limbs cut off. We saw buildings collapsed, people dying. We saw a lady half buried under cement. She was trying to leave a building and as she left, the building fell down and took her leg off."
A German tourist, Patrick Werner, 28, said he had been down at the beach when the quake struck.
"The sand began shaking on the ground and then it moved like a wave of thick water. We saw some cracks emerge in the soil and water come out of the ground like it was in Universal Studios," he said.
"We grabbed our passports and some money and ran up to the street. We saw power poles knocked over and houses tilted over, with their tiles smashed. People were crying but they still said 'hello mister'."
In Padang, many of the houses were reduced to rubble. In others, walls and roofs had collapsed, leaving just the furniture standing. A house prepared for a wedding -- draped with red sashes and gold decorations -- had half collapsed, with no sign of the bride or groom.
Nasaruddin, 45, a father-of-four, said he had lost his house and was camping out in a 1-metre by 3-metre tent made from some poles, a tarp and a piece of rusty corrugated iron.
"I share this with three other families. We are waiting for aid from the government, food, water and materials to fix our house, especially cement and sand," he told Reuters.
"It's very hard to find food right now. Who knows when the aid will come, it may be next month but I think it could be three months before we can move out of this tent."
"I saw the road move up and down like a wave. The ground was not just shaking but actually jumping up and down. It's by far the worst I've ever seen," he told Reuters.
Officials estimate that thousands are trapped under rubble and possibly dead after hundreds of houses and multi-storey buildings collapsed from the 7.6 magnitude quake, which struck on Wednesday afternoon and was followed by aftershocks.
Padang, these days a minor port city, is circled by hills. Its residents fled to higher ground and open spaces in panic when the quake struck, and many chose to sleep out in the open despite heavy rain rather than risk returning indoors.Arriving at Padang airport from Jakarta, this reporter encountered scenes of chaos.
Hundreds of people had placed prayer mats on the ground outside the airport to sleep in the open, shops had run out of water, and desperate residents scrambled for seats on planes to flee the devastation.
Few cars or taxis were willing to drive into the city centre. Petrol had run out at many stations or else could not be pumped because the power was down.
THOUSANDS TRYING TO LEAVE
"It's getting nasty in town. It's chaos. There's no fuel, people are looting. It's getting worse because people have no food, no money. There's thousands trying to leave town, the roads are blocked," said American Greg Hunt, 38.
"I have been through quakes here before and this was the worst. There is blood everywhere, people with their limbs cut off. We saw buildings collapsed, people dying. We saw a lady half buried under cement. She was trying to leave a building and as she left, the building fell down and took her leg off."
A German tourist, Patrick Werner, 28, said he had been down at the beach when the quake struck.
"The sand began shaking on the ground and then it moved like a wave of thick water. We saw some cracks emerge in the soil and water come out of the ground like it was in Universal Studios," he said.
"We grabbed our passports and some money and ran up to the street. We saw power poles knocked over and houses tilted over, with their tiles smashed. People were crying but they still said 'hello mister'."
In Padang, many of the houses were reduced to rubble. In others, walls and roofs had collapsed, leaving just the furniture standing. A house prepared for a wedding -- draped with red sashes and gold decorations -- had half collapsed, with no sign of the bride or groom.
Nasaruddin, 45, a father-of-four, said he had lost his house and was camping out in a 1-metre by 3-metre tent made from some poles, a tarp and a piece of rusty corrugated iron.
"I share this with three other families. We are waiting for aid from the government, food, water and materials to fix our house, especially cement and sand," he told Reuters.
"It's very hard to find food right now. Who knows when the aid will come, it may be next month but I think it could be three months before we can move out of this tent."
False Hope From Voice in Quake Rubble
Rescuers rushed back into the rubble Tuesday after a woman's cries for help were reported coming from a collapsed hotel six days after Indonesia's devastating earthquake — but the search was in vain.
Australian experts used specialized voice detection equipment to scour the remnants of the Ambacang hotel in four different places after a worker said he heard a woman's voice. They found no signs of life, said team leader John Cowcutt, and demolition of the building's remnants resumed.
The episode underscored the agony of the families of thousands of people who are missing after last Wednesday's 7.6-magnitude quake collapsed buildings in Padang city and sent landslides crashing down onto villages in the surrounding hills in West Sumatra province.
The official death toll rose Tuesday to 704 and could reach into the thousands, officials said.
"I've been coming here every day for any kind of news," said Firmansyah Blis as he watched backhoes dig chunks of concrete from the wreckage of the hotel, where his wife was last seen. "I doubt she is alive. I think the search crews tried hard to find her. I just want them to find her body."
Betty Diraja, 39, also waited outside the hotel Tuesday in the hope of receiving news about Aswad, her husband and father to their three children.
"It was too early to leave his beloved kids. They still need his guidance as a father," said Diraja, sobbing quietly.
Hotel worker Rizal said he heard a woman's faint cries coming from within the hotel's remnants on Tuesday, even over the roar heavy machines.
"When I walked among the rubble, I heard a weak voice screaming 'Help, help, help!' " said Rizki, who like many Indonesians uses just one name. "I am confident it was from a woman who survived. Her voice was getting weaker and fading away."
Officials called in search crews, though they conceded the chances of finding more survivors is extremely remote.
"We stopped for a moment so that rescuers could check if there really was a voice," said Lt. Col. Haris, an army officer helping in the recovery operation, wondering aloud, "How long can someone survive without food or water?"
Demolition crews had begun knocking down damaged structures around Padang and hauling off debris in trucks. Around six bodies were removed and loaded into waiting ambulances to be taken to hospital morgues.
The broader search for survivors was halted Monday — five days after the 7.6-magnitude quake struck off the coast. Aid workers from at least 20 countries were focused on caring for the hundreds of thousands left homeless.
Six helicopters shuttled instant noodles, blankets, milk and other aid to the isolated hillside villages of the Padang Pariaman district, where landslides buried more than 600 people, said Ade Edward, head of operations control at West Sumatra's Center for Disaster Management.
"We have stopped looking for living survivors and are maximizing the use of heavy equipment," he said. "We hope to clear the rubble in two weeks so we can start reconstruction."
Signs of normal life have returned in some places in the city. Hundreds of children went back to classes Monday in tents supplied by UNICEF. Market stalls were full of food and bustling with residents stocking up on vegetables, fruit and fish.
But the city of 900,000 still resembled a sprawling demolition site with houses, mosques, schools, a mall and hotels brought down.
Emergency workers faced an uphill battle trying to reach remote communities in the hills of Pariaman where whole villages were wiped out by landslides. The force of the quake gouged out mountainsides and dumped tons of mud, boulders and trees, burying hundreds of people alive.
Heavy rain since Sunday and thick wet mud also made it difficult for aid workers to reach the stricken areas, said Gagah Prakoso, a spokesman for the Indonesian Search and Rescue Agency.
The Meteorological and Geophysics Agency warned the region could see strong winds and storms for the next two days.
It was unclear precisely how many people are without shelter, but more than 88,000 houses were flattened, U.N. and Indonesian agencies said, and another 100,000 public buildings damaged.
Government minister Aburizal Bakrie said $600 million was needed to repair infrastructure.
Associated Press writers Sarah Sayekti and Anthony Deutsch in Jakarta contributed to this report.
Australian experts used specialized voice detection equipment to scour the remnants of the Ambacang hotel in four different places after a worker said he heard a woman's voice. They found no signs of life, said team leader John Cowcutt, and demolition of the building's remnants resumed.
The episode underscored the agony of the families of thousands of people who are missing after last Wednesday's 7.6-magnitude quake collapsed buildings in Padang city and sent landslides crashing down onto villages in the surrounding hills in West Sumatra province.
The official death toll rose Tuesday to 704 and could reach into the thousands, officials said.
"I've been coming here every day for any kind of news," said Firmansyah Blis as he watched backhoes dig chunks of concrete from the wreckage of the hotel, where his wife was last seen. "I doubt she is alive. I think the search crews tried hard to find her. I just want them to find her body."
Betty Diraja, 39, also waited outside the hotel Tuesday in the hope of receiving news about Aswad, her husband and father to their three children.
"It was too early to leave his beloved kids. They still need his guidance as a father," said Diraja, sobbing quietly.
Hotel worker Rizal said he heard a woman's faint cries coming from within the hotel's remnants on Tuesday, even over the roar heavy machines.
"When I walked among the rubble, I heard a weak voice screaming 'Help, help, help!' " said Rizki, who like many Indonesians uses just one name. "I am confident it was from a woman who survived. Her voice was getting weaker and fading away."
Officials called in search crews, though they conceded the chances of finding more survivors is extremely remote.
"We stopped for a moment so that rescuers could check if there really was a voice," said Lt. Col. Haris, an army officer helping in the recovery operation, wondering aloud, "How long can someone survive without food or water?"
Demolition crews had begun knocking down damaged structures around Padang and hauling off debris in trucks. Around six bodies were removed and loaded into waiting ambulances to be taken to hospital morgues.
The broader search for survivors was halted Monday — five days after the 7.6-magnitude quake struck off the coast. Aid workers from at least 20 countries were focused on caring for the hundreds of thousands left homeless.
Six helicopters shuttled instant noodles, blankets, milk and other aid to the isolated hillside villages of the Padang Pariaman district, where landslides buried more than 600 people, said Ade Edward, head of operations control at West Sumatra's Center for Disaster Management.
"We have stopped looking for living survivors and are maximizing the use of heavy equipment," he said. "We hope to clear the rubble in two weeks so we can start reconstruction."
Signs of normal life have returned in some places in the city. Hundreds of children went back to classes Monday in tents supplied by UNICEF. Market stalls were full of food and bustling with residents stocking up on vegetables, fruit and fish.
But the city of 900,000 still resembled a sprawling demolition site with houses, mosques, schools, a mall and hotels brought down.
Emergency workers faced an uphill battle trying to reach remote communities in the hills of Pariaman where whole villages were wiped out by landslides. The force of the quake gouged out mountainsides and dumped tons of mud, boulders and trees, burying hundreds of people alive.
Heavy rain since Sunday and thick wet mud also made it difficult for aid workers to reach the stricken areas, said Gagah Prakoso, a spokesman for the Indonesian Search and Rescue Agency.
The Meteorological and Geophysics Agency warned the region could see strong winds and storms for the next two days.
It was unclear precisely how many people are without shelter, but more than 88,000 houses were flattened, U.N. and Indonesian agencies said, and another 100,000 public buildings damaged.
Government minister Aburizal Bakrie said $600 million was needed to repair infrastructure.
Associated Press writers Sarah Sayekti and Anthony Deutsch in Jakarta contributed to this report.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
What Are Earthquake Hazards?
Earthquakes really pose little direct danger to a person. People can't be shaken to death by an earthquake. Some movies show scenes with the ground suddenly opening up and people falling into fiery pits, but this just doesn't happen in real life.
The Effect of Ground Shaking
The first main earthquake hazard (danger) is the effect of ground shaking. Buildings can be damaged by the shaking itself or by the ground beneath them settling to a different level than it was before the earthquake (subsidence).
Buildings can even sink into the ground if soil liquefaction occurs. Liquefaction is the mixing of sand or soil and groundwater (water underground) during the shaking of a moderate or strong earthquake. When the water and soil are mixed, the ground becomes very soft and acts similar to quicksand. If liquefaction occurs under a building, it may start to lean, tip over, or sink several feet. The ground firms up again after the earthquake has past and the water has settled back down to its usual place deeper in the ground. Liquefaction is a hazard in areas that have groundwater near the surface and sandy soil.Buildings can also be damaged by strong surface waves making the ground heave and lurch. Any buildings in the path of these surface waves can lean or tip over from all the movement. The ground shaking may also cause landslides, mudslides, and avalanches on steeper hills or mountains, all of which can damage buildings and hurt people.
Ground Displacement
The second main earthquake hazard is ground displacement (ground movement) along a fault. If a structure (a building, road, etc.) is built across a fault, the ground displacement during an earthquake could seriously damage or rip apart that structure.
From Figure 4 you can tell that the San Andreas Fault is a right-lateral transverse (strike-slip) fault because the other side of the road (on the opposite side of the fault) has moved to the right, relative to the photographer's position.
Flooding
The third main hazard is flooding. An earthquake can rupture (break) dams or levees along a river. The water from the river or the reservoir would then flood the area, damaging buildings and maybe sweeping away or drowning people.Tsunamis and seiches can also cause a great deal of damage. A tsunami is what most people call a tidal wave, but it has nothing to do with the tides on the ocean. It is a huge wave caused by an earthquake under the ocean. Tsunamis can be tens of feet high when they hit the shore and can do enormous damage to the coastline. Seiches are like small tsunamis. They occur on lakes that are shaken by the earthquake and are usually only a few feet high, but they can still flood or knock down houses, and tip over trees.
Fire
The fourth main earthquake hazard is fire. These fires can be started by broken gas lines and power lines, or tipped over wood or coal stoves. They can be a serious problem, especially if the water lines that feed the fire hydrants are broken, too. For example, after the Great San Francisco Earthquake in 1906, the city burned for three days. Most of the city was destroyed and 250,000 people were left homeless.
Most of the hazards to people come from man-made structures themselves and the shaking they receive from the earthquake. The real dangers to people are being crushed in a collapsing building, drowning in a flood caused by a broken dam or levee, getting buried under a landslide, or being burned in a fire.
The Effect of Ground Shaking
The first main earthquake hazard (danger) is the effect of ground shaking. Buildings can be damaged by the shaking itself or by the ground beneath them settling to a different level than it was before the earthquake (subsidence).
Buildings can even sink into the ground if soil liquefaction occurs. Liquefaction is the mixing of sand or soil and groundwater (water underground) during the shaking of a moderate or strong earthquake. When the water and soil are mixed, the ground becomes very soft and acts similar to quicksand. If liquefaction occurs under a building, it may start to lean, tip over, or sink several feet. The ground firms up again after the earthquake has past and the water has settled back down to its usual place deeper in the ground. Liquefaction is a hazard in areas that have groundwater near the surface and sandy soil.Buildings can also be damaged by strong surface waves making the ground heave and lurch. Any buildings in the path of these surface waves can lean or tip over from all the movement. The ground shaking may also cause landslides, mudslides, and avalanches on steeper hills or mountains, all of which can damage buildings and hurt people.
Ground Displacement
The second main earthquake hazard is ground displacement (ground movement) along a fault. If a structure (a building, road, etc.) is built across a fault, the ground displacement during an earthquake could seriously damage or rip apart that structure.
From Figure 4 you can tell that the San Andreas Fault is a right-lateral transverse (strike-slip) fault because the other side of the road (on the opposite side of the fault) has moved to the right, relative to the photographer's position.
Flooding
The third main hazard is flooding. An earthquake can rupture (break) dams or levees along a river. The water from the river or the reservoir would then flood the area, damaging buildings and maybe sweeping away or drowning people.Tsunamis and seiches can also cause a great deal of damage. A tsunami is what most people call a tidal wave, but it has nothing to do with the tides on the ocean. It is a huge wave caused by an earthquake under the ocean. Tsunamis can be tens of feet high when they hit the shore and can do enormous damage to the coastline. Seiches are like small tsunamis. They occur on lakes that are shaken by the earthquake and are usually only a few feet high, but they can still flood or knock down houses, and tip over trees.
Fire
The fourth main earthquake hazard is fire. These fires can be started by broken gas lines and power lines, or tipped over wood or coal stoves. They can be a serious problem, especially if the water lines that feed the fire hydrants are broken, too. For example, after the Great San Francisco Earthquake in 1906, the city burned for three days. Most of the city was destroyed and 250,000 people were left homeless.
Most of the hazards to people come from man-made structures themselves and the shaking they receive from the earthquake. The real dangers to people are being crushed in a collapsing building, drowning in a flood caused by a broken dam or levee, getting buried under a landslide, or being burned in a fire.
INDONESIA DEATHS MAY TOP 1,300 … 3,000 MISSING; Landslides bury four villages
The death toll from Indonesia’s massive earthquake will likely double as officials on Saturday reached rural communities wiped out by landslides that buried more than 600 people under mountains of mud, most of them guests at a wedding celebration. Virtually nothing remained of four villages that had dotted the hillside of the Padang Pariman district in Indonesia’s West Sumatra just three days ago, said officials and an Associated Press photographer who flew over the devastated area. Hundreds of doctors, nurses, search and rescue experts and cleanup crews arrived at the regional airport from around the globe with tons of food, tents, medicine, clean water, generators and a field hospital.
But with no electricity, fuel shortages and telecommunication outages the massive operation was chaotic. Roughly 400 people were at a communal wedding in Pulau Aiya village when Wednes-day’s 7.6 magnitude quake unleashed a torrent of mud, rock and felled palm trees, said Rustam Pakaya, the head of Indonesia’s Health Ministry crisis center.
“They were sucked 30 meters (100 feet) deep into the earth,” he said. “Even the mosque’s minaret, taller than 20 meters (65 feet), disappeared.” Twenty-six bodies were pulled from the rubble-strewn brown earth in nearby Lubuk Lawe and Jumena, but 618 bodies remained far beyond the reach of residents who worked without outside help because roads had been severed, he said.
The number of fatalities in the disaster will jump to more than 1,300 if all those people are confirmed dead. The government’s death toll on Saturday held steady at 715, most reported in the region’s badly hit capital of 900,000, Padang, where aid efforts are concentrated.
As many as 3,000 people had been declared missing before news about the obliterated villages emerged, while 2,400 were hospitalized and tens of thousands of people are believed to have been displaced.
More than 1.1 million residents live in the 10 quake-hit districts, the United Nations estimated in a situation assessment, while the government said more than 30,000 homes, schools, mosques, hospitals and government offices had been flattened or severely damaged — 17 percent of all local infrastructure.
An AP photographer who flew over Padang Pariaman district in a helicopter saw several landslides in the area.
At Limo Koto Timur village, a giant section of a hillside was swept away and the remains of destroyed houses protruded from the mud. The ruins of other tin-roofed homes hung precariously over the edge of a huge crevice that was torn through rice fields and forest. Roads were gone and palm trees had been uprooted and swept downhill, leaving patches of brown earth where villages once stood.
El-Mostafa Benlamlih, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Indonesia, told the AP that 200 houses were swept away in Pulau Aiya. Aid efforts are “still concentrated in Padang area,” with outlying areas still short of aid, Benlamlih said, adding that aid agencies would focus on restoring water, electricity, sanitation and preventing disease.
Deliveries came on C-130 cargo planes from the United States, Russia and Australia. Japanese, Swiss, South Korean and Malaysian search and rescue teams scoured the debris. Tens of millions of dollars in donations came from more than a dozen countries to supplement $400 million the Indonesian government said it would spend over the next two months.
On Friday, survivors buried under a collapsed hotel in Padang sent a cell-phone text message to a relative saying he and some others were alive. But, disappointed rescue workers were unable to locate anyone at the Ambacang hotel where as many as 200 people were staying.
After several hours of digging through blocks of concrete, steel and bricks, rescue workers gave up. Padang police chief Col Boy Rafli Amar told reporters, “So far rescuers have found nothing.”
Hidehiro Murase, head of a Japanese search dog team, said its search had been fruitless.
“We did an extensive search this morning, but there were no signs of life. Our dogs are trained to smell for living people, not the dead, and they didn’t sense anything,” he told the AP.
The UN said there are sufficient fuel stocks in the area for four days, but with the road to a major depot cut off by landslides gasoline prices had jumped six-fold.
Areas with “huge levels of damage to infrastructure were in need of basic food and tents for temporary shelter,” it said.
Wednesday’s quake originated on the same fault line that spawned the 2004 Asian tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen nations.
Samoa
Samoa is planning a mass burial for victims of the tsunami that devastated the Pacific island earlier this week, the government said Friday, as the death toll from the disaster crept towards 200.
Many families were already burying their loved ones in unmarked graves on high ground less ravaged by Tuesday’s walls of water that wiped out coastal settlements, but Samoa has offered a mass funeral for around 100 others.
“The government has met with the families of the dead and made the offer of a national burial and is offering a place for all those victims to be buried together,” government press secretary Uale Papalii Paimalelagi told AFP.
“Some of the victims have already been taken by their families and buried, so we expect around 100 to be laid to rest in the mass burial,” he said, adding it was up to relatives to accept the offer, but most had agreed.
The ceremony is tentatively planned for Tuesday, but may be postponed at the request of families to allow time for overseas relatives to arrive, the office of Women, Village Council and Social Development Minister Fiame Mataafa Naomi said.
The mass burial plans were revealed as the number of those feared dead in the region reached at least 180, with officials warning it would rise further.
Meanwhile, Samoan officials shifted their focus from rescuing lives to providing survivors with food, water and power, but stressed it didn’t mean they were giving up on the missing.
Electricity and water services were restored in about half of the affected villages in Samoa and American Samoa, and almost all of the territory was expected to have power from generators within three to five days, said Ken Tingman, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s federal coordinating officer.
FEMA will also establish an office to provide housing assistance to residents displaced after Tuesday’s earthquake and tsunami, said American Samoa Gov Togiola Tulafono.
Taule’alea Laavasa, chairman of the Samoan government’s National Disaster Advisory Committee, said Friday that relief work was going well with the help of neighbors including New Zealand and Australia.
But many survivors refused to return to their villages.
“They’re scared; a lot of them have been psychologically affected by seeing their relations die in huge numbers,” Laavasa said.
The death toll rose to 170, including 129 in Samoa, 32 in the nearby US territory of American Samoa and nine in Tonga.
Tingman said that although they are now focusing more on helping survivors, it didn’t mean the missing were being given up for dead. “You never lose hope,” he said. Some Samoans have been forced to forgo burial rituals because their villages are gone. Other families have had to speed up the burial process because loved ones’ bodies were found in such decomposed states. The village of Leone, the center of Christianity on the island, was a bleak landscape of rubble. The beach meeting houses that had been the center of cultural rituals and family meetings were destroyed. An overturned van was jammed into the roof of one beach house. Leone residents estimate the tsunami destroyed about one-third of the village, which has a population of 3,000. The victims were mostly elderly or toddlers. Four villagers were killed while making crafts on the shore. About two dozen soldiers and airmen from the Hawaii National Guard had the heart-wrenching task Friday of searching through the village’s muddy debris for a missing 6-year-old boy named Columbus Sulivai.
Bill Hopkinson, a village chief, said the boy had been on the way to school with his sisters. “When the earthquake hit, instead of seeking higher ground, they came running back home,” Hopkinson said. Both girls died. Samoa’s tourism industry, meanwhile, said it feared a “second tsunami” of vacation cancellations after the deadly waves wiped out some of the South Pacific country’s most idyllic white-sand beaches and resorts. Tourism is Samoa’s largest industry, and travel industry representatives visiting the main island’s wrecked southeast coast said Friday about one-quarter of the tourist accommodations had been destroyed. Nynette Sass, chief executive of the Samoa Hotel Association, said the industry was alarmed by anecdotal reports of mass vacation cancellations since Tuesday’s disaster. “If substantial numbers of tourists start canceling, that will be like having a second tsunami on us,” Sass said. The industry accounts for 25 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, she said.
But with no electricity, fuel shortages and telecommunication outages the massive operation was chaotic. Roughly 400 people were at a communal wedding in Pulau Aiya village when Wednes-day’s 7.6 magnitude quake unleashed a torrent of mud, rock and felled palm trees, said Rustam Pakaya, the head of Indonesia’s Health Ministry crisis center.
“They were sucked 30 meters (100 feet) deep into the earth,” he said. “Even the mosque’s minaret, taller than 20 meters (65 feet), disappeared.” Twenty-six bodies were pulled from the rubble-strewn brown earth in nearby Lubuk Lawe and Jumena, but 618 bodies remained far beyond the reach of residents who worked without outside help because roads had been severed, he said.
The number of fatalities in the disaster will jump to more than 1,300 if all those people are confirmed dead. The government’s death toll on Saturday held steady at 715, most reported in the region’s badly hit capital of 900,000, Padang, where aid efforts are concentrated.
As many as 3,000 people had been declared missing before news about the obliterated villages emerged, while 2,400 were hospitalized and tens of thousands of people are believed to have been displaced.
More than 1.1 million residents live in the 10 quake-hit districts, the United Nations estimated in a situation assessment, while the government said more than 30,000 homes, schools, mosques, hospitals and government offices had been flattened or severely damaged — 17 percent of all local infrastructure.
An AP photographer who flew over Padang Pariaman district in a helicopter saw several landslides in the area.
At Limo Koto Timur village, a giant section of a hillside was swept away and the remains of destroyed houses protruded from the mud. The ruins of other tin-roofed homes hung precariously over the edge of a huge crevice that was torn through rice fields and forest. Roads were gone and palm trees had been uprooted and swept downhill, leaving patches of brown earth where villages once stood.
El-Mostafa Benlamlih, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Indonesia, told the AP that 200 houses were swept away in Pulau Aiya. Aid efforts are “still concentrated in Padang area,” with outlying areas still short of aid, Benlamlih said, adding that aid agencies would focus on restoring water, electricity, sanitation and preventing disease.
Deliveries came on C-130 cargo planes from the United States, Russia and Australia. Japanese, Swiss, South Korean and Malaysian search and rescue teams scoured the debris. Tens of millions of dollars in donations came from more than a dozen countries to supplement $400 million the Indonesian government said it would spend over the next two months.
On Friday, survivors buried under a collapsed hotel in Padang sent a cell-phone text message to a relative saying he and some others were alive. But, disappointed rescue workers were unable to locate anyone at the Ambacang hotel where as many as 200 people were staying.
After several hours of digging through blocks of concrete, steel and bricks, rescue workers gave up. Padang police chief Col Boy Rafli Amar told reporters, “So far rescuers have found nothing.”
Hidehiro Murase, head of a Japanese search dog team, said its search had been fruitless.
“We did an extensive search this morning, but there were no signs of life. Our dogs are trained to smell for living people, not the dead, and they didn’t sense anything,” he told the AP.
The UN said there are sufficient fuel stocks in the area for four days, but with the road to a major depot cut off by landslides gasoline prices had jumped six-fold.
Areas with “huge levels of damage to infrastructure were in need of basic food and tents for temporary shelter,” it said.
Wednesday’s quake originated on the same fault line that spawned the 2004 Asian tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen nations.
Samoa
Samoa is planning a mass burial for victims of the tsunami that devastated the Pacific island earlier this week, the government said Friday, as the death toll from the disaster crept towards 200.
Many families were already burying their loved ones in unmarked graves on high ground less ravaged by Tuesday’s walls of water that wiped out coastal settlements, but Samoa has offered a mass funeral for around 100 others.
“The government has met with the families of the dead and made the offer of a national burial and is offering a place for all those victims to be buried together,” government press secretary Uale Papalii Paimalelagi told AFP.
“Some of the victims have already been taken by their families and buried, so we expect around 100 to be laid to rest in the mass burial,” he said, adding it was up to relatives to accept the offer, but most had agreed.
The ceremony is tentatively planned for Tuesday, but may be postponed at the request of families to allow time for overseas relatives to arrive, the office of Women, Village Council and Social Development Minister Fiame Mataafa Naomi said.
The mass burial plans were revealed as the number of those feared dead in the region reached at least 180, with officials warning it would rise further.
Meanwhile, Samoan officials shifted their focus from rescuing lives to providing survivors with food, water and power, but stressed it didn’t mean they were giving up on the missing.
Electricity and water services were restored in about half of the affected villages in Samoa and American Samoa, and almost all of the territory was expected to have power from generators within three to five days, said Ken Tingman, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s federal coordinating officer.
FEMA will also establish an office to provide housing assistance to residents displaced after Tuesday’s earthquake and tsunami, said American Samoa Gov Togiola Tulafono.
Taule’alea Laavasa, chairman of the Samoan government’s National Disaster Advisory Committee, said Friday that relief work was going well with the help of neighbors including New Zealand and Australia.
But many survivors refused to return to their villages.
“They’re scared; a lot of them have been psychologically affected by seeing their relations die in huge numbers,” Laavasa said.
The death toll rose to 170, including 129 in Samoa, 32 in the nearby US territory of American Samoa and nine in Tonga.
Tingman said that although they are now focusing more on helping survivors, it didn’t mean the missing were being given up for dead. “You never lose hope,” he said. Some Samoans have been forced to forgo burial rituals because their villages are gone. Other families have had to speed up the burial process because loved ones’ bodies were found in such decomposed states. The village of Leone, the center of Christianity on the island, was a bleak landscape of rubble. The beach meeting houses that had been the center of cultural rituals and family meetings were destroyed. An overturned van was jammed into the roof of one beach house. Leone residents estimate the tsunami destroyed about one-third of the village, which has a population of 3,000. The victims were mostly elderly or toddlers. Four villagers were killed while making crafts on the shore. About two dozen soldiers and airmen from the Hawaii National Guard had the heart-wrenching task Friday of searching through the village’s muddy debris for a missing 6-year-old boy named Columbus Sulivai.
Bill Hopkinson, a village chief, said the boy had been on the way to school with his sisters. “When the earthquake hit, instead of seeking higher ground, they came running back home,” Hopkinson said. Both girls died. Samoa’s tourism industry, meanwhile, said it feared a “second tsunami” of vacation cancellations after the deadly waves wiped out some of the South Pacific country’s most idyllic white-sand beaches and resorts. Tourism is Samoa’s largest industry, and travel industry representatives visiting the main island’s wrecked southeast coast said Friday about one-quarter of the tourist accommodations had been destroyed. Nynette Sass, chief executive of the Samoa Hotel Association, said the industry was alarmed by anecdotal reports of mass vacation cancellations since Tuesday’s disaster. “If substantial numbers of tourists start canceling, that will be like having a second tsunami on us,” Sass said. The industry accounts for 25 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, she said.
Emergency Disaster Relief Efforts
OBI launches emergency disaster relief efforts in Padang, Indonesia
Disaster relief specialist Operation Blessing International (OBI) is responding to a 7.6 magnitude earthquake here which has left over 1,100 dead and many thousands more seriously injured.
OBI, which has a major presence in the country through its regional headquarters in Jakarta, has four medical teams on the ground in the hard hit city of Padang, with 25 doctors and nurses providing emergency medical relief. OBI loaded an Indonesian Navy vessel in Jakarta yesterday with two ambulances, electrical generators drums of fuel and thousands of emergency kits. The ship will arrive in Padang on Saturday. In addition, four OBI trucks loaded with relief supplies arrived in Padang today, with additional non-medical OBI team members distributing shelter kits and other critical relief supplies.
OBI is also setting up two logistics bases, one in Pekanbaru and the other in Jakarta.
OBI has joined with longtime partner, the airborne charity Mission Aviation Fellowship, who is flying in the medical teams and supplies. Additionally, OBI has teamed up with another longtime partner, the German charity Humedica, who is sending a medical team that will operate from OBI's base in Padang.
Says Mark McClendon, Operation Blessing International's director on the ground, "The situation here is very urgent, with many areas still completely unreachable and no way to help the victims there. The devastation is much worse than what the media has reported so far."
OBI has worked in Indonesia since opening the Jakarta regional headquarters in 1998, helping over 850,000 people to date. The charity was a first responder to the 2004 tsunami, where it operated and built numerous medical clinics, treated over 180,000 patients and gave away over $27 million dollars worth of medicine. OBI also distributed over 136,000 care packages and more than 52 tons of food. Since the tsunami, OBI Indonesia has built or refurbished hundreds of boats, with each boat supporting the economic needs of three families. OBI affiliates have also provided over 306 boats and have created 208 other livelihood projects including brick factories in Rigah and Lhok Kruet, where over 100,000 bricks were produced and used to build new homes.
ABOUT OPERATION BLESSING INTERNATIONAL:
Operation Blessing International (OBI) is one of the largest charities in America, providing strategic disaster relief, medical aid, hunger relief, clean water and community development in 22 countries around the world on a daily basis. In 2009, OBI was awarded Charity Navigator's coveted 4 star rating for sound fiscal management for the fifth year in a row, a feat that only 4% of rated charities have ever achieved. Forbes, which currently ranks OBI as one of "America's 200 Largest Charities" as well as one of "America's Most Efficient Charities," awarded OBI a perfect 100% rating in fundraising efficiency and 99% efficiency in charitable commitment. Additionally, the Chronicle of Philanthropy recently ranked OBI as the 58th largest non-governmental organization and 9th largest international charity.
In 2008, OBI responded to 33 disasters in 16 foreign countries as well as 7 major domestic disasters. Most recently, OBI mobilized teams and funded major relief and recovery efforts in Italy, Myanmar, the Sichuan Province of China, Rift Valley in Kenya, Bangladesh, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, the Darfur region of Sudan, Pakistan, Somalia, India, Indonesia, Mozambique and the Philippines. OBI has also made headlines as a first responder to U.S. hurricanes, floods and tornadoes as well as the tsunami disaster in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand. In addition to directing major disaster relief efforts, OBI has often filled the role of logistical arm to organizations including the International Red Cross, the Salvation Army, UNICEF and the United Nations World Food Program.
Founded in 1978, Operation Blessing International has touched the lives of more than 209.3 million people in more than 105 countries and 50 states, providing goods and services valued at over $1.7 billion to date.
Disaster relief specialist Operation Blessing International (OBI) is responding to a 7.6 magnitude earthquake here which has left over 1,100 dead and many thousands more seriously injured.
OBI, which has a major presence in the country through its regional headquarters in Jakarta, has four medical teams on the ground in the hard hit city of Padang, with 25 doctors and nurses providing emergency medical relief. OBI loaded an Indonesian Navy vessel in Jakarta yesterday with two ambulances, electrical generators drums of fuel and thousands of emergency kits. The ship will arrive in Padang on Saturday. In addition, four OBI trucks loaded with relief supplies arrived in Padang today, with additional non-medical OBI team members distributing shelter kits and other critical relief supplies.
OBI is also setting up two logistics bases, one in Pekanbaru and the other in Jakarta.
OBI has joined with longtime partner, the airborne charity Mission Aviation Fellowship, who is flying in the medical teams and supplies. Additionally, OBI has teamed up with another longtime partner, the German charity Humedica, who is sending a medical team that will operate from OBI's base in Padang.
Says Mark McClendon, Operation Blessing International's director on the ground, "The situation here is very urgent, with many areas still completely unreachable and no way to help the victims there. The devastation is much worse than what the media has reported so far."
OBI has worked in Indonesia since opening the Jakarta regional headquarters in 1998, helping over 850,000 people to date. The charity was a first responder to the 2004 tsunami, where it operated and built numerous medical clinics, treated over 180,000 patients and gave away over $27 million dollars worth of medicine. OBI also distributed over 136,000 care packages and more than 52 tons of food. Since the tsunami, OBI Indonesia has built or refurbished hundreds of boats, with each boat supporting the economic needs of three families. OBI affiliates have also provided over 306 boats and have created 208 other livelihood projects including brick factories in Rigah and Lhok Kruet, where over 100,000 bricks were produced and used to build new homes.
ABOUT OPERATION BLESSING INTERNATIONAL:
Operation Blessing International (OBI) is one of the largest charities in America, providing strategic disaster relief, medical aid, hunger relief, clean water and community development in 22 countries around the world on a daily basis. In 2009, OBI was awarded Charity Navigator's coveted 4 star rating for sound fiscal management for the fifth year in a row, a feat that only 4% of rated charities have ever achieved. Forbes, which currently ranks OBI as one of "America's 200 Largest Charities" as well as one of "America's Most Efficient Charities," awarded OBI a perfect 100% rating in fundraising efficiency and 99% efficiency in charitable commitment. Additionally, the Chronicle of Philanthropy recently ranked OBI as the 58th largest non-governmental organization and 9th largest international charity.
In 2008, OBI responded to 33 disasters in 16 foreign countries as well as 7 major domestic disasters. Most recently, OBI mobilized teams and funded major relief and recovery efforts in Italy, Myanmar, the Sichuan Province of China, Rift Valley in Kenya, Bangladesh, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, the Darfur region of Sudan, Pakistan, Somalia, India, Indonesia, Mozambique and the Philippines. OBI has also made headlines as a first responder to U.S. hurricanes, floods and tornadoes as well as the tsunami disaster in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand. In addition to directing major disaster relief efforts, OBI has often filled the role of logistical arm to organizations including the International Red Cross, the Salvation Army, UNICEF and the United Nations World Food Program.
Founded in 1978, Operation Blessing International has touched the lives of more than 209.3 million people in more than 105 countries and 50 states, providing goods and services valued at over $1.7 billion to date.
Padang in recovery mode
Schools and markets have begun to reopen in Padang after last week's devastating earthquake in West Sumatra.
Indonesia's health ministry still estimates that thousands of people remain buried, while the official national total remains at 608 confirmed dead and 343 people missing.
Those official national disaster relief agency figures rely on an actual count of body bags and actual inquiries made after missing people.
The problem in areas beyond Padang, such as Pariaman, is that many communities have been almost entirely wiped out by landslides and so few people are left to actually look for the missing.
Taking this into account the health ministry estimates that 3,000 people are missing and 20,000 buildings have collapsed.
World Vision chief Tim Costello has praised Indonesia's efforts in tackling the aftermath of last Wednesday's earthquake.
The debris of collapsed buildings is still strewn around Padang and many structures are now unstable, but Mr Costello says the effectiveness of the emergency response has much improved since 2004's Aceh's tsunami.
He says his organisation will focus its relief efforts beyond Padang city, close to the quake's epicentre where the damage is worse.
Official Indonesia disaster relief figures suggest regional areas around Padang and Pariaman have been the worst affected with 285 confirmed dead and an equal number missing.
Only four people remain missing in Padang City where 149 people are confirmed to have died.
Relief efforts
The Federal Government says it is looking at what it can do to help restore water supplies to Padang.
The Government says it has already committed about $3 million to the recovery effort and Federal Parliamentary Secretary for International Assistance, Bob McMullan, says that figure may increase.
"The Indonesian Government has said that they can get the electricity supply back in Padang within the week, but it might take a month to get proper water supply back up and operating because of the extent of the damage, so we need to do something about water," he said.
The Australian Defence Force has also flown in a second wave of medical officers to Padang to assist after last week's devastating earthquake.
A team of 22 officers from Sydney's first help support unit arrived last night, bringing with them medical equipment and two military vehicles.
They will spend today assessing possible locations for field hospitals in the outlying areas of Padang.
International teams including more than 30 workers from Queensland have also been assisting in the search and rescue effort.
But there is still a lot of wreckage to get through to find people.
Heavy rain last night could slow down that work and has sparked more fears of landslides and disease.
Indonesia's health ministry still estimates that thousands of people remain buried, while the official national total remains at 608 confirmed dead and 343 people missing.
Those official national disaster relief agency figures rely on an actual count of body bags and actual inquiries made after missing people.
The problem in areas beyond Padang, such as Pariaman, is that many communities have been almost entirely wiped out by landslides and so few people are left to actually look for the missing.
Taking this into account the health ministry estimates that 3,000 people are missing and 20,000 buildings have collapsed.
World Vision chief Tim Costello has praised Indonesia's efforts in tackling the aftermath of last Wednesday's earthquake.
The debris of collapsed buildings is still strewn around Padang and many structures are now unstable, but Mr Costello says the effectiveness of the emergency response has much improved since 2004's Aceh's tsunami.
He says his organisation will focus its relief efforts beyond Padang city, close to the quake's epicentre where the damage is worse.
Official Indonesia disaster relief figures suggest regional areas around Padang and Pariaman have been the worst affected with 285 confirmed dead and an equal number missing.
Only four people remain missing in Padang City where 149 people are confirmed to have died.
Relief efforts
The Federal Government says it is looking at what it can do to help restore water supplies to Padang.
The Government says it has already committed about $3 million to the recovery effort and Federal Parliamentary Secretary for International Assistance, Bob McMullan, says that figure may increase.
"The Indonesian Government has said that they can get the electricity supply back in Padang within the week, but it might take a month to get proper water supply back up and operating because of the extent of the damage, so we need to do something about water," he said.
The Australian Defence Force has also flown in a second wave of medical officers to Padang to assist after last week's devastating earthquake.
A team of 22 officers from Sydney's first help support unit arrived last night, bringing with them medical equipment and two military vehicles.
They will spend today assessing possible locations for field hospitals in the outlying areas of Padang.
International teams including more than 30 workers from Queensland have also been assisting in the search and rescue effort.
But there is still a lot of wreckage to get through to find people.
Heavy rain last night could slow down that work and has sparked more fears of landslides and disease.
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