The Jakarta Post, May 29, 2006
Death toll rises, rescue efforts go on
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The death toll from Saturday's earthquake had reached more than 4,600 as of late
Sunday, as rescue workers continued to search for survivors.
Hospitals and medical staff remained overwhelmed as patients continued to stream in.
Around 200,000 people are thought to have been left homeless by the quake, which
hit 5.9 on the Richter scale, according to the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency.
On a visit to Gontor Islamic school in Ponorogo, President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono said he would work from Yogyakarta with Cabinet ministers so he could
"directly supervise the evacuation process", said his spokesman, Andi Mallarangeng.
A late night Cabinet meeting with Vice President Jusuf Kalla revealed the government
is setting aside Rp 1 trillion (about US$ 107.5 billion) for one year, including Rp 300
billion for a three month emergency relief phase, and the rest for reconstruction and
rehabilitation.
Electricity, telecommunications, and fuel supplies are yet to be restored to all
quake-affected areas.
State Minister for State Enterprises Sugiharto said state power firm PT PLN would
have restored electricity in Central Java's Klaten regency, Yogyakarta's metropolitan
area and Bantul regency by Sunday, Antara reported.
Saturday's quake knocked out lines carrying 400 megawatts of power to the area,
with Yogyakarta's metropolitan area regaining electricity by the day's end, but Klaten
and Bantul still left in the dark. PLN will bring in power directly from its West and
Central Java grids.
Sugiharto also said state telecommunications firm PT Telkom had fixed 82 of the 112
telephone line towers damaged during the quake.
State oil and gas company PT Pertamina spokesperson M. Harun said Yogyakarta's
60,700-kiloliter daily fuel requirements were being met by supplies from the nearby
cities of Cilacap, Solo, Cepu and Madiun.
Yogyakarta's Adisucipto Airport is limited to humanitarian aid operations as repairs
are still underway. Reuters reported medical supplies and body bags were arriving at
the airport.
From Bantul, south of the provincial capital, Agence France-Presse reported
thousands of troops and emergency rescue teams had joined volunteers who were
clawing at debris with their bare hands, but power blackouts and heavy rain at dusk
were hampering rescue efforts.
The stench of decomposing bodies filled the air as soldiers used a backhoe to dig
through the rubble in one neighborhood that was completely leveled by the temblor.
Yuni, in her 40s, searched frantically for her uncle, who lived with a maid at a house
that had collapsed, AFP reported.
Aid workers warned dwindling supplies of food and water and a lack of housing could
pose long-term challenges.
In order to cater to the demand for blood, the Surabaya branch of the Indonesian Red
Cross was keeping its donation services open 24 hours, the branch head said.
UN Children's Fund spokesman John Budd told Reuters the number of people left
homeless by the disaster was still vague.
All contents copyright © of The Jakarta Post.
|
