Cianjur, Indonesia, Nov. 22 (BNA): The death toll from the earthquake that struck the Indonesian island of Java jumped to 252 on Tuesday as more bodies were found under collapsed buildings.
The Cianjur regional disaster mitigation agency said on its Instagram that the death toll had risen from 162 the night before. Another 31 people are still missing and hundreds are injured, according to the Associated Press.
The city of Cianjur, south of Jakarta, was near the epicenter of the 5.6-magnitude earthquake Monday afternoon. The earthquake sent panicked residents into the streets, covering some in blood and debris, and caused buildings to collapse across the rural area.
When the earthquake struck, one woman told the Associated Press, her home in Cianjur “started shaking as if it was dancing.”
“I was crying and immediately grabbed my husband and children,” said the woman, who gave her name only as Partinem. The house collapsed shortly after she and her family fled.
“If I don’t pull them out, we could be victims too,” she said, staring at the pile of concrete and wooden rubble.
In addition to the fatalities, authorities reported that more than 300 people were seriously injured and at least 600 others sustained minor injuries.
Henri Alfiande, head of the National Search and Rescue Agency, said the earthquake in the village of Segedil, northwest of Cianjur, triggered a landslide that blocked streets and buried many homes, and there were reports that 25 people were still buried.
“We are maximizing operations at several points where it is suspected that casualties will continue. Our team is also trying to reach remote areas,” he said. “For us, all victims are a priority, and our goal is to find them and save lives by evacuating them as quickly as possible and getting medical help.”
With hospitals already overwhelmed, patients lay on stretchers and cots in tents set up outside, with intravenous drips in their arms as they waited for more treatment.
Ridwan Kamel, governor of West Java, said many of the dead were government school students who had finished their lessons that day and were taking additional lessons in Islamic schools when the buildings collapsed.
Initial rescue attempts were hampered by damaged roads and bridges, power outages, and a lack of heavy equipment to help move the heavy concrete rubble. By Tuesday, the power supply and telephone connections had begun to improve.
Indra Atmawedaga, spokesman for Public Works and Housing, said operations have been concentrated on about a dozen sites in Cianjur, where people are believed to still be trapped.
“We are racing against time to save people,” said Atmawedaga, adding that seven excavators and 10 large trucks have been deployed from the neighboring cities of Bandung and Bogor to continue removing trees and soil that have blocked roads.
Cargo trucks loaded with food, tents, blankets and other supplies arrived from Jakarta early Tuesday in makeshift shelters. However, thousands spent the night in the open, fearing aftershocks.
“The buildings were completely flattened,” said Dwi Sarmady, who works for an Islamic educational institution in a nearby area.
President Joko Widodo on Tuesday visited Cianjur to reassure people of the government’s response in reaching those in need.
“On my own behalf and on behalf of the government, I would like to express my deepest condolences to the victims and their families of the Cianjur earthquake,” he said after visiting survivors in shelters at a football stadium.
He pledged to rebuild infrastructure, including the main bridge connecting Cianjur with other cities, and to provide government assistance of up to 50 million rupees ($3,180) for each resident whose house was damaged.
Approximately 175,000 people live in Cianjur, which is part of the mountainous region of the same name and is home to more than 2.5 million people. Renowned for their piety, the people of Cianjur lived mostly in towns of one- and two-story buildings and in smaller houses in the surrounding countryside.
Kamel said that more than 13,000 people whose homes were badly damaged were taken to evacuation centres. Outside Cianjur Regional Hospital, hundreds waited for treatment.
Sarmadi said, “I was working inside my office building. The building was not damaged, but as the earthquake shook so hard, many things fell. My leg was hit by heavy things.”
He was waiting near a tent outside the hospital after some of the overcrowded clinics could not see him. Many people were in worse condition. “I really hope they can deal with me soon,” he said.
Hassan, a construction worker who, like many Indonesians uses one name, was also one of the survivors who was taken to the hospital.
“I passed out,” Hassan recalls. “It was so strong.” “I saw my friends running out of the building. But it was too late to get out and I hit the wall.”
The quake occurred at a depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles). It also caused panic in the greater Jakarta area, about three hours away by car, as high-rises swayed and some people were evacuated.
The country of more than 270 million people is frequently hit by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis due to its location on the volcanic arc and fault lines of the Pacific basin known as the “Ring of Fire”.
In February, a 6.2-magnitude earthquake killed at least 25 people and injured more than 460 people in West Sumatra province. In January 2021, a 6.2-magnitude earthquake killed more than 100 people and injured nearly 6,500 in the province of West Sulawesi.
A powerful earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean in 2004 killed 230,000 people in more than a dozen countries, most of them in Indonesia.