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More than 70,000 people have been left homeless in the deadly earthquake that hit Indonesia’s Lombok, as authorities appeal for more medical personnel and supplies https://t.co/9F9DeHcWcr pic.twitter.com/Euer5KWgA9— AFP news agency (@AFP) August 8, 2018
Yahoo News
written by Kiki Siregar, AFP
Wednesday August 8, 2018
The death toll from a powerful earthquake on the Indonesian island of Lombok rose above 130 on Wednesday, as authorities appealed for food, clean water and medical help for some 156,000 people forced from their homes.
Many frightened, displaced villagers are staying under tents or tarpaulins dotted along roads or in parched rice fields, and makeshift medical facilities have been set up to treat the injured.
Evacuees in some encampments say they are running out of food, while others are suffering psychological trauma after the 6.9-magnitude quake, which struck just one week after another tremor surged through the island and killed 17.
"We still need long-term aid, even though we have already received help from various (regional) governments," national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.
Around 1,477 people were severely injured in the disaster, with tens of thousands of homes damaged, and authorities say the toll of 131 is likely to rise.
Workers with heavy machinery are searching the rubble of homes, schools and mosques, with hope of finding any survivors fading.
"The corpses are starting to smell and we believe some people buried are still alive -- that's why it's a critical time," Nugroho said.
Local authorities, international relief groups and the central government have begun organising aid, but shattered roads have slowed efforts to reach survivors in the mountainous north and east of Lombok, which bore the brunt of the quake.
Muhammad Zainul Majdi, governor of the West Nusa Tenggara region which covers Lombok, said there was a dire need for medical staff, food and medicine in the worst-hit places.
Hundreds of bloodied and bandaged victims have been treated outside damaged hospitals in the island's main city of Mataram and other badly affected areas.
"We have limited human resources. Some paramedics have to be at the shelters, some need to be mobile," Majdi told AFP.
"The scale of this quake is massive for us here in West Nusa Tenggara, this is our first experience."
Some evacuees are grappling with the traumatic scenes of death and destruction that accompanied the quake.
"I saw my neighbour get stuck in the rubble and die. He asked me for help, but I couldn't help him, we just ran to help ourselves," Johriah, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, told AFP tearfully.
- 'Destruction almost 100 percent' -
The Indonesian Red Cross said it had set up 10 mobile clinics in the north of the island.
A field hospital has also been established near an evacuation centre catering to more than 500 people in the village of Tanjung.
Kurniawan Eko Wibowo, a doctor at the field hospital, said most patients had broken bones and head injuries.
"We lack the infrastructure to perform operations because (they) need to be performed in a sterile place," Wibowo told AFP.
Across much of the island, a popular tourist destination, once-bustling villages have been turned into virtual ghost towns.
"In some villages we visited the destruction was almost 100 percent, all houses collapsed, roads are cracked and bridges were broken," said Arifin Muhammad Hadi, a spokesman for the Indonesian Red Cross.
Many farmers were reluctant to move far from their damaged homes and leave precious livestock behind, he added.
The Indonesian military said that three Hercules transporter planes packed with food, medication, blankets, tents and water tanks had arrived in Lombok.
The West Sumatra government has donated one tonne of its most famous culinary export, beef rendang -- a slow-cooked coconut curry.
- 'We have no clean water' -
But some evacuees have complained of being ignored or experiencing long delays for supplies to arrive at shelters.
"There has been no help at all here," said 36-year-old Multazam, staying with hundreds of others under tarpaulins on a dry paddy field outside West Pemenang village.
"We have no clean water, so if we want to go to the toilet we use a small river nearby," he said, adding they needed food, bedding and medicine.
At an orphanage in West Lombok, some 80 children -- including a one-year-old -- were huddling under two large tents after their dorms were destroyed.
"We still have supplies for the next few days, but I'm not sure about after that," Billa Rabbani, a spokeswoman from the Peduli Anak orphanage, told AFP.
The quake struck as evening prayers were being said across the Muslim-majority island and there are fears that one collapsed mosque in north Lombok had been filled with worshippers.
Rescuers have found three bodies and also managed to pull one man alive from the twisted wreckage of the mosque, reduced to a pile of concrete and metal bars, with its towering green dome folded in on itself.
Meanwhile, the evacuation of tourists from the Gili Islands -- three tiny, coral-fringed tropical islands off the northwest coast of Lombok -- has finished, officials said.
— Dr Janine Krippner (@janinekrippner) August 7, 2018'105 people killed, 236 injured, >84,000 displaced, thousands of homes damaged by the Mag 7 earthquake that rocked Lombok & Bali (as of 7/8/2018). It's estimated that the number of victims will increase as evacuations from buildings continues by the joint SAR Team.' https://t.co/aYbUtgfz1A
#Indonesia #Lombok The Jakarta Animal Aid Network is sending a truck with supplies this Thursday from Bali & then Friday from Jakarta. Please kindly contact Femke 0813 1496 2608 if you can donate sleeping bags, dog food or ANY supplies that can be useful. #disasteranimals https://t.co/zPZJi2KZxD— Animals in Disaster (@DisasterAnimals) August 7, 2018
CBS News
written by Staff, AP
Wednesday August 8, 2018
BANGSAL, Indonesia -- Aid began reaching isolated areas of the Indonesian island struggling after an earthquake killed at least 131 people as rescuers intensified efforts Wednesday to find those buried in the rubble.
Volunteers and rescue personnel erected more temporary shelters for the tens of thousands left homeless on Lombok by the magnitude 7.0 quake on Sunday evening.
The Reuters news agency reports officials haven't given up hope of finding more survivors. "We don't know for sure how many people are alive under the rubble," Reutrers quotes Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, the spokesman for Indonesia's disaster mitigation agency (BNPB) as telling reporters in Jakarta. "There are reports ... that there are people buried alive, it is a critical time for immediate evacuation," he said.
Water, which has been in short supply due to a prolonged dry spell on the island, as well as food and medical supplies were being distributed from trucks. The military said five planes carrying food, medicine, blankets, field tents and water tankers left Jakarta for the island early Wednesday.
Still, government assistance was barely a trickle in the west Lombok village of Kekait where Zulas Triani, an elementary school teacher who was sharing a tent with 30 others, said they had received only a basket with three noodle packets, five eggs and a small ration of water.
"My house was flattened. We are all frustrated to live like this - in a tent without certainty. Where should we go if we have no house anymore, nowhere to live?" said the mother of 15- and 9-year-old girls.
"I don't know how to rebuild on my own. We're all relying on the government to help. I do hope the government can help," she said.
The national disaster agency's spokesman, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, said 131 people were confirmed dead, up from 105 announced Tuesday.
He said reports of other deaths still needed to be verified, and the toll is expected to increase.
Nearly 1,500 people have been hospitalized with serious injuries and more than 156,000 have been displaced due to the extensive damage to thousands of homes. Thousands of people have been sleeping in makeshift shelters or out in the open.
At a collapsed mosque in Bangsal district, emergency workers in orange uniforms removed a woman's body from the ruins on Wednesday morning. A green and yellow dome rested on the pile of rubble, the only part of the structure still intact.
Authorities said all the tourists who wanted to be evacuated from three outlying vacation islands due to power blackouts and damage to hotels had left by boat, some 5,000 people in all.
The quake was the second in a week to hit Lombok. A magnitude 6.4 earthquake on July 29 killed 16 people and cracked and weakened many structures, amplifying the damage that occurred in Sunday's quake.
Like its famous neighbor Bali, Lombok is known for beaches, mountains and a lush interior. Hotels and other buildings in both locations are not allowed to exceed the height of coconut trees.
Indonesia is prone to earthquakes because of its location on the "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin. In December 2004, a massive magnitude 9.1 earthquake off Sumatra triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries.
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