Cianjur, Nov. 23 (BNA) Helicopters will on Wednesday deliver relief supplies to Indonesian villagers stranded after an earthquake destroyed homes in West Java, while others wait anxiously to learn the fate of their missing relatives.
The death toll from Monday’s 5.6-magnitude earthquake rose in the town of Cianjur as the scale of the disaster spread, with 268 people officially confirmed dead, up from about 160 the day before, and more than 150 missing, according to Reuters.
On Wednesday, recovery efforts will focus on Koginang, one of the hardest-hit districts, where at least one village is believed to have been buried by a landslide, while helicopters will drop emergency supplies to two other districts cut off by closed roads.
As authorities prepared to introduce more heavy machinery to clear landslides, video images showed people digging the earth with their bare hands and tools such as picks, sticks and crowbars.
“If it was only an earthquake, only the houses would collapse, but this is worse because of the landslide,” said Zinedine, who was searching for six of their missing relatives.
“In this residential area, there were eight houses, all of which were buried and swept away.”
More than 1,000 police officers have been recruited to assist rescue teams.
Rescuers are desperate to get to those trapped as quickly as possible, said Henri Alfiande, head of the search and rescue agency, and warned that the chances of survival began to diminish three days after the earthquake.
He said helicopters would drop food and water on two villages that could not be reached by land.
West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil said the mountainous terrain was making it difficult to deliver aid, forcing officials to go to the affected villages.
Indonesia is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries, regularly recording stronger seaquakes.
But Monday’s earthquake, which was followed by more than 160 aftershocks, was more deadly because it hit a densely populated area at a shallow depth of only 10 km.
Officials added that poor building standards led to many deaths.
President Joko Widodo called for earthquake-resistant housing to be included in the reconstruction effort, during a visit on Tuesday to the town, 75 km south of the capital, Jakarta.
Health Minister Budi Gunade Sadiqin said that immediate surgery is urgently needed as quake-affected hospitals have limited capacity.
“My priority is no more deaths,” he said. “The first priority is making sure the seriously injured patients are cared for, so they can survive.”
MI