Survivors stunned by power of Indonesia quake
Pastor Dale Morgan
Wednesday March 7, 2:39 PM
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Survivors stunned by power of Indonesia quake*
Survivors and emergency workers sifted Wednesday through the debris of
flattened homes on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, one day after a
powerful quake sent people fleeing for safety.
The force of the 6.3-magnitude earthquake, followed by an almost equally
powerful aftershock, stunned villagers used to the tremors that
regularly shake this mountainous region of West Sumatra.
Rescue officials say the quake, which hit early Tuesday, killed 71
people and injured hundreds, 47 of them seriously.
"We have earthquakes now and then but nothing as strong as yesterday's.
I have never experienced an earthquake that strong," said Emi Zurmiati,
42, her eyes reddened from crying.
Speaking in front of a crumbled home in Sumani village, one of the
hardest-hit areas of West Sumatra's Solok district, she said her mother
and two nieces had been killed in the quake.
The girls died in a fire that swept through a primary school after a
wall collapsed on it. Her mother was killed in a narrow nearby alleyway.
Altogether nine people died in Sumani, five of them primary school
pupils and the rest women hit in the alley by the same collapsing wall.
Zurmiati, who had been sweeping in front of her home when the quake
struck, said the ground shook so strongly that she could not even stand.
"Even crouching, I was tossed right and left," she said.
The quake's epicentre was located 49 kilometres (30 miles) northeast of
the West Sumatran capital Padang, according to the US Geological Survey,
but was also felt in neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore.
"This time, it was not only very strong but also lasted a long time,"
said 75-year-old Nurbari, a grandmother sitting under a large plastic
sheet strung between trees in front of her house in Tanah Garam, a
village near Sumani.
"The last time there was such a strong earthquake, that crumpled
buildings and left large cracks on the ground. I was still very young.
You were not even born then," Nurbari said, putting some order into her
dishevelled hair.
"You get used easily to the small earthquakes that often hit this
region, but they were nothing compared to yesterday," said Ridah, 42,
sharing a tent with Nurbari and four other families.
She said at least four strong tremors rocked the district while more
than a dozen other weaker aftershocks had kept people awake long into
the night.
Safruddin, 38, who runs a small shop in Sumani that somehow withstood
the quake, said up to 70 percent of the buildings in the village had
been damaged or destroyed.
"Most people were out of their house, or, because of habit and
experience, had quickly left their houses before they crumbled," he said.
In the hamlet of Sumagek, near Sumani, about 70 people spent the night
in the open, fearful of returning to their homes.
"Everyone, by habit, knows what to do in case of a quake," said Masri, a
60-year-old farmer. "Run out of buildings."
"But this time, it (the quake) was extraordinary, really extraordinary,"
he added.
Martins, 33, a carpenter in Sumagek, said that electricity was still cut
off. "We have only received instant noodles once and we are still
waiting for the government's promise to give us tents."
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered police, military, ministers
and authorities to coordinate the relief effort.
United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon was "deeply saddened" by the disaster,
his spokeswoman said, adding that the world body was ready to lend
assistance.
The Netherlands pledged two million dollars to buy immediate necessities
such as medication, medical care and logistical help.
Indonesia, an archipelago of some 17,000 islands, sits on the so-called
Pacific Ring of Fire, where continental plates meet -- and where
earthquakes are a regular and often deadly occurrence.
The devastating Asian tsunami in 2004 was set off by a massive
earthquake off the coast of Sumatra, killing some 168,000 people in Aceh
province on its northern tip. A total of 250,000 people died across the
Indian Ocean region.