ADEK BERRY / AFP / Getty Images
Anguished villagers wept as bodies were carried away yesterday in Bantul, where 2,000 people died after the temblor on Indonesia's Java Island. |
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BANTUL, Indonesia – Desperate relatives and rescue workers searched through rubble for survivors yesterday after a powerful earthquake flattened nearly all the buildings in this rice-farming town while residents slept, killing more than 3,700 people on Indonesia's densely populated Java island.
The magnitude-6.3 quake wounded thousands more and was the nation's biggest disaster since the Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami. It also triggered fears that a nearby volcano would erupt.
The worst devastation occurred near the city of Yogyakarta, in Bantul, where 80 percent of the homes were shattered and more than 2,000 people killed. Residents started digging mass graves almost immediately, with family members sobbing and reading the Quran beside rows of corpses awaiting burial beneath a blazing sun.
Village leaders recorded the names of victims so they could be added to the official death toll. Subarjo, a 70-year-old food vendor, sobbed next to his dead wife, his house destroyed.
“I couldn't help my wife ... I was trying to rescue my children, one with a broken leg, and then the house collapsed,” he said. “I have to accept this as our destiny, as God's will.”
More than 400 aftershocks rattled the area, about 250 miles east of the capital, Jakarta, as the injured were taken to hospitals over cracked roads on trucks, buses and even motorbikes. But many were blocked by broken bridges.
Meanwhile, two strong earthquakes struck the South Pacific today. A magnitude-6.7 temblor rocked the island nation of Tonga and a magnitude-6.2 quake struck off the coast of Papua New Guinea, the U.S. Geological survey said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
A driving rain began late last night, and major hospitals set up tents in their parking lots to try to protect the overflowing masses of the injured. At one hospital, many victims lay on the wet ground with only newspaper beneath them. Nurses ran in and out, ferrying quickly dwindling supplies.
The earthquake struck at 5:54 a.m. near the famed Borobudur temple complex, caving in roofs and sending concrete walls crashing down. Survivors screamed as they ran from their homes, some clutching bloodied children and the elderly.
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The impact
The magnitude-6.3 temblor quake has resulted in:
3,700: people reported killed
3,400: people injured
80 percent: homes destroyed in hardest-hit Bantul
2,000: deaths there
Epicenter was 50 miles south of the simmering Mount Merapi volcano, which belched hot clouds and sent debris cascading about two miles down its western flank. Merapi is one of 76 volcanoes in Indonesia, which has the largest number of volcanoes in the world.
AID PLEDGES
– $2.5 million in emergency assistance from United States.
– $2.3 million from Australia.
– Up to $3.8 million from European Commission.
– 27 tons of tents, blankets, water purifiers, electric generators from Italy.
– 9,000 tarpaulins, 2,000 tents, health kits and hygiene kits from UNICEF.
– 56-member search team, doctors and medical supplies from Malaysia.
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It was the most recent in a series of disasters to strike Indonesia – from the 2004 tsunami that ravaged Aceh province to a widening bird-flu outbreak to the threat of eruption from nearby Mount Merapi.
The United States responded with an emergency allocation of $2.5 million for assistance to victims.
“Through financial and material support, the United States is assisting with recovery efforts in coordination with Indonesian authorities, and we stand prepared to provide additional assistance as needed,” President Bush said in a statement released late yesterday.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said U.S. Agency for International Development personnel are in Yogyakarta, the central Indonesian city that bore much of the quake's impact.
Australia said it will send $2.3 million in emergency aid.
The quake was centered about six miles below the surface, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The epicenter was 50 miles south of the rumbling Merapi volcano, and activity increased soon after the temblor. A large burst spewed hot clouds and sent debris cascading some two miles down its western flank.
Bambang Dwiyanto of the Energy and Mineral Ministry could not say whether the quake caused the volcanic activity but warned that it could trigger a larger eruption. “It will influence the activities of Mount Merapi, particularly in the lava dome,” Dwiyanto said.
TARKO SURDIANO / AFP / Getty Images
An injured woman was taken to a hospital in Yogyakarta.
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STR / AFP / Getty Images
Residents tried to remove the concrete rubble that slammed their car during the 5:54 a.m. quake.
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Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.
Anthony Guarino of the CalTech Seismological Laboratory in Pasadena said Indonesia has the second-highest number of erupted volcanoes in historic time, outside of Japan. It also has the largest number of volcanoes in the world – 76.
As night fell across the disaster zone – stretching across hundreds of square miles of mostly farming communities in Yogyakarta province – tens of thousands of people prepared to sleep on streets, in rice fields and in backyards, fearful of aftershocks.
International agencies and other nations promised to send relief immediately.
Power and telephone service was out across much of the region, adding to their terror. After spending hours digging in vain through the smoldering debris, many said they were giving up their search for relatives or friends until morning.
“It's just too dark,” said Sarjio, who was looking for his 40-year-old neighbor, believed to be trapped beneath the remains of her house. “There's nothing we can do now.”
DIMAS ARDIAN / Getty Images
A resident of Bantul prayed in front of his wrecked home. Eighty percent of the town's houses were destroyed.
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ADEK BERRY / AFP / Getty Images
Bantul men cradled their dead at a funeral. People began digging mass graves shortly after the temblor struck.
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President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered the army to evacuate victims and arrived with a team of Cabinet ministers to oversee rescue operations. He slept in a tent camp with survivors.
At least 3,731 people were killed, rescue officials said.
“The numbers just keep rising,” said Arifin Muhadi of the Indonesian Red Cross, adding that more than 3,400 people were hurt.
The only foreigner reported killed or injured in the quake was a man from Holland. U.S. Embassy spokesman Max Kwak said he did not know of any U.S. casualties.
Yogyakarta is about 18 miles from the coast. In the chaos that followed the quake, false rumors of an impending tsunami sent thousands of people fleeing to higher ground in cars and on motorbikes.
The city, with a densely packed population of half a million, is the cultural center of Java, and is a popular tourist destination in Indonesia. One of the main hotel districts was badly damaged, but there were few immediate reports of fatalities there.
The city is 1,390 miles southeast of Aceh province, where 131,000 people died in the 2004 tsunami that was triggered by a magnitude-9 earthquake under the ocean.
Many roads and bridges were destroyed in yesterday's quake, hindering efforts to get taxis and pickups filled with wounded to hospitals.
JEWEL SAMAD / AFP / Getty Images
Two women consoled each other yesterday as they say amid the rubble of their collapsed home in the town of Jetis in Yogyakarta province. The magnitude-6.3 quake knocked out power and telephone service for much of the area, and it collapsed bridges and cracked roads, hampering efforts to transport survivors to already overflowing hospitals.
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Officials said that, at the least, tens of thousands of residents had been left homeless. Doctors struggled to care for the injured, hundreds of whom were lying on plastic sheets, straw mats and even newspapers outside the overcrowded hospitals, some hooked to intravenous drips dangling from trees.
A driving rain began late last night, and major hospitals set up tents in their parking lots to try to protect the overflowing masses of the injured. Nurses ran in and out, ferrying quickly dwindling supplies.
Blood stained the floor at Yogyakarta's Dr. Sardjito Hospital, along with piles of soiled bandages and used medical supplies.
“We are short of surgeons,” said Alexander, a doctor who like many Indonesians goes by one name. “There are still so many critically injured people here.”
By nightfall, officials at the hospital had tallied 89 dead, but bodies kept arriving and some family members were taking them home before they could be added to the official toll.
DIMAS ARDIAN / Getty Images
Injured children were treated in the yard of a hospital in Bantul. Some hospitals were so overcrowded that hundreds of survivors were lying on plastic sheets and even newspapers, with several patients hooked to intravenous drips hung from trees.
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Neighboring Malaysia said it will send a 56-member search team, doctors and medical supplies, and the European Commission said it would release up to $3.8 million in emergency aid.
The World Food Program was sending a plane with two tons of medicine and eight truckloads of fortified noodles and biscuits, agency spokeswoman Brenda Barton said in Rome.
The Italian government also loaded a plane with 27 tons of tents, blankets, water purifiers, electric generators and other aid, the Foreign Ministry said.
UNICEF is sending 9,000 tarpaulins, 2,000 tents, health kits and hygiene kits, spokesman John Budd told CNN. He said a hospital and several health clinics had collapsed, and about 4,000 houses were destroyed.
Almost all people had already been evacuated away from the volcano's danger zone, and there were no reports of injuries there. A geological researcher at the Indonesian Science Institute, Dani Hilman, said he did not believe the quake was powerful enough to create a large eruption.
The quake cracked the runway and waiting area at the Yogyakarta airport, closing it to aircraft until at least today while inspections take place, Transport Minister Hatta Radjasa said.
Officials said the famed 7th century Borobudur Buddhist temple, one of Indonesia's most popular tourist attractions, was not affected by the quake. Nearby Prambanan, a spectacular Hindu temple to the southeast, suffered some damage but it was not immediately clear how much, officials said.
Nearly 1 million tourists visit the temples every year.
The New York Times News Service contributed to this report.
