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1,234 people dead in Indonesia quake, tsunami

1,234 people dead in Indonesia quake, tsunami

Indonesia quakePalu (Indonesia) : Indonesian authorities on Tuesday raised the death toll to 1,234 in the 7.5-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit Sulawesi island last week.

The twin disasters on Friday left the coastal city of Palu and the adjoining areas in ruins. Authorities said tens of thousands of people were growing increasingly desperate for food, fuel and water.

According to Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency, hundreds of people may still be trapped under the rubble of buildings. Rescue teams were still not able to reach all the affected areas, the BBC reported.

With the ground still shaking from aftershocks, people were still too afraid to go indoors. An earthquake measuring 6 on the Richter scale rocked Sumba island of Indonesia on Tuesday, but there were no reports of any damage.

Colonel Muhammad Thohir of the Indonesian Army said that authorities need to send aid via helicopter in areas like Donggala, one of the towns most affected by the tsunami, as well as other districts which were not accessible to the rescuers.

He said gasoline and water supplies were being transported to the Sulawesi island, but they were still insufficient for the people affected.

Indonesian officials said that priorities included sending food to those in need, conducting a mass burial of victims, and guaranteeing the security of the airport, which was expected to start receiving commercial flights on Wednesday.

So far, 153 victims have been buried in mass graves to prevent an outbreak of disease caused by decomposing bodies. According to a CCN report, more than 100 corpses were still lying in the yard outside the Undata Hospital in Palu.

The hospital’s director, Komang Hadi Sujendra, said the one facility alone had received over 200 bodies since the tsunami.

An estimated 2.4 million people were affected by the disaster, said the disaster management agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho. He said that 800 were badly injured and more than 61,000 people were displaced.

—IANS

Indonesia quake toll climbs to 347, thousands await aid

Indonesia quake toll climbs to 347, thousands await aid

Indonesia earthquake- Trapped hikers descend volcano, toll 16Jakarta : The death toll from Sunday’s devastating earthquake on the Indonesian island of Lombok climbed to 347 on Wednesday as rescuers continued searching through the rubble, still hoping to find survivors, the National Disaster Management Agency said.

The agency’s spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho confirmed the toll. The majority of people died in Kayangan, on the north side of the island, according to the state-run Antara news agency.

Another 1,447 people were injured and 165,003 were displaced by the 6.9 magnitude quake, Nugroho told the news agency earlier.

Around 200,000 people live in northern Lombok, a mountainous region, according to the 2010 census. On Tuesday, the government estimated that 20,000 people were in need of assistance, with around 80 per cent of buildings destroyed, as aid workers struggled to reach those affected by the disaster.

“We are concerned aid trucks can’t get through because of the debris and there are also landslides happening,” Husni Husni, a Jarkarta-based representative for the Red Cross, told CNN.

“A lot of people are displaced and many have migrated to the hilly and mountainous areas because of fear of a tsunami.”

Meanwhile, the disaster management agency said on Tuesday that all of the 2,000 tourists on the Gili Islands had been evacuated.

Dramatic video tweeted by authorities showed hundreds of people, many believed to be foreign vacationers, crammed onto a beach on the island of Gili Trawangan as evacuation measures got underway.

Dozens of injured people were being treated in tents temporarily set up in the northwest of the island, as the centre was damaged by the quake.

Aid reached many of the survivors, but there was still a lack of food, water and tents in areas difficult to access.

Lombok is known for Mount Rinjani volcano and comprises about 4,500 sq km of land area. It is located east of the popular tourist destination island of Bali.

A week earlier, on July 29, another magnitude-6.4 earthquake hit Lombok and left 16 people dead, 355 injured and 1,500 buildings destroyed.

Indonesia is situated within the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, an area known for heavy seismic and volcanic activity, which cause about 7,000 tremors a year, mostly of moderate intensity.

—IANS