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Officials
raise death toll in Sumatra earthquake to 103 |
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June 7, 2000
BENGKULU, Indonesia, JUNE 6 (AP) - The official death toll from Sumatra's massive earthquake rose to 103 on Tuesday as the search for victims intensified despite rumbling aftershocks that kept scared survivors outdoors. Police feared the number of casualties could rise even further once authorities reach remote areas, including a tiny island closest to the epicenter of the earthquake, which struck on Sunday night. |
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A government emergency task force said 64 bodies had been recovered from rubble in Bengkulu town on Sumatra's southwest coast. The rest were killed in other parts.
Many were crushed as they slept when their poorly built homes caved in. The quake cut off communications and electricity, and closed area's main airport. In badly hit Bengkulu, a town of 250,000 people, tens of thousands spent Monday night outdoors, too afraid to return to their damaged homes in case another big quake struck. More than 300 aftershocks have been recorded since the temblor hit. The city contains no large apartment blocks, which probably would have been leveled by the quake, raising the death toll far higher than it was. "We're too scared to go indoors again. What can we do now? Everything has gone," said Zohar Mahyum, whose house was reduced to a pile of rubble. More than 100 badly injured patients, some two or three to bed, were being treated in the parking lot of the devastated Young General Hospital. Doctors performed emergency operations under plastic sheeting. Twelve patients have died from quake-inflicted injuries. Like
much of the town, the hospital's badly cracked walls and caved in roof was
testament to the severity of the tremor that was centered beneath the
Indian Ocean, only 100 kilometers (60 miles) to the west. "We got all patients and staff out immediately after the quake. It's unsafe inside," said doctor Budi Mulana. "We are finding things very difficult. We have only two days supply of medicines left." Blood supplies were running low and medical equipment was lost under the debris. "The walls of my house fell in. I pulled my three boys from the rubble. They are hurt, but they are alive, thank God," said one patient, who goes by the single name of Suharto. Police said teams of rescuers, including police, soldiers and local people, had stepped up search efforts in the rubble of the city.
Two navy ships were bringing emergency supplies. Rescue personnel were being deployed from other parts of Indonesia, and some foreign countries had offered assistance. "Most victims were killed in their beds when roofs fell down," said the Bengkulu police chief, Lt. Col. Nainggolan. "The number of known dead is now 58. But we fear it will go higher. We still haven't heard from outlying areas."
Telephone
services and roads in some parts remained cut Tuesday. Many people are
worried about the fate of tiny Enggano island, about 200 kilometers (125
miles) southeast of Bengkulu town and closest to the quake's epicenter. Initial reports said as many as 90 percent of its buildings were flattened. The island has a population of about 1,800 people. The U.S. agency put the strength of Sunday's quake at 7.9. The Indonesian Meteorological and Geophysical Service said it measured 7.3.
Earthquakes
are common in Indonesia. Even so, Sunday night's quake was one of the most
powerful recorded here in several years. The quake was felt across much of
the western half of the archipelago nation. People in Indonesia's capital,
Jakarta, more than 500 kilometers (310 miles) to the southeast, as well as
in the neighboring island state of Singapore, fled their apartments after
high-rise buildings swayed. The U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colorado, said the quake's epicenter was about 33 kilometers (20 miles) beneath the floor of the Indian Ocean - very shallow in geological terms. But
there was no report of a tsunami, a massive wave that can be caused by an
earthquake or volcanic eruption. In December 1992, a magnitude 7
earthquake triggered a tsunami that killed about 2,500 people on the
southeastern island of Flores. |
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