162 died as Indonesia quakes knocking down houses, buildings and roads ( News Hawaii )
CIANJUR, Indonesia — Rescuers on Tuesday were trying to find more bodies from the rubble of homes and buildings after an earthquake that killed at least 162 people and injured hundreds on Indonesia’s main island of Java.
Heavy equipment has arrived in the heavily populated city of Cianjur, in the most populous province of West Java, where a magnitude 5.6 earthquake struck Monday afternoon. Terrified residents fled into the street, partially covered in blood and debris.
Damaged roads and bridges, power blackouts and a lack of heavy equipment hampered Indonesia’s earlier rescue efforts after the quake hit, blocking roads and burying dozens of homes and motorists.
Power supplies and telephone communications in the affected areas began to improve on Tuesday.
Many of the dead were public school students who had finished their classes for the day and were taking extra lessons in Islamic schools when the buildings collapsed, West Java Gov. Ridwan Kamil said, announcing the latest death toll in the remote, rural area.
Hospitals for injured people were overwhelmed and the toll was expected to rise. No reports were immediately available due to the remoteness of the rural population, but many structures collapsed, and residents and workers immediately received the sad news.
Operations have identified about a dozen locations in Cianjur, where people are still believed to be trapped, said Endra Atmawidjaja, public works and housing spokesperson.
“When we run to rescue people,” said Atmawidjaja, adding seven excavators and 10 large trucks from the neighboring cities of Bandung and Bogor to continue clearing trees and land that are blocked between the roads connecting Cianjur and Cipanas towns.
Food trucks carrying food, tents, blankets and other supplies arrived from the capital of Batavia on Tuesday morning to be distributed in temporary shelters. However, thousands spent the night in the open for fear of aftershocks.
“The buildings were completely flattened,” said Dwi Sarmadi, who runs an Islamic education foundation in the neighboring region.
About 175 thousand people live in the town of Cianjur, a mountainous part of the same name with more than 2.5 million people. Known for their piety, most people in Cianjur live in towns and semi-detached buildings and smaller surrounding fields.
Kamil said more than 13,000 people, whose homes were severely damaged, had to leave the centers.
Emergency workers treated the injured on stretchers and blankets outside hospitals, on balconies and in parking lots. The injured, including children, were given oxygen masks and IV lines. Some were resurrected.
Hundreds of people gathered outside the Cianjur regional hospital building, waiting for treatment
“I was doing work inside my office building. The building was not damaged, but the earthquake shook very much, many fell. The leg was hit by a heavy object,” Sarmadi said.
Sarmadi was waiting in a nearby tent outside the hospital after some sunken clinics failed to see him. Many came in worse shape.
“I really hope I can be treated soon,” he said.
Hasan, a construction worker who, like many Indonesians, uses one name, was also one of the survivors who was taken to the hospital.
“I fail. Hasan said very bravely. “I saw my friends running away from the building. But it was too late to get out and I was hit by a wall.
The magnitude 5.6 earthquake occurred at a depth of 6.2 miles below the Earth’s surface, according to the US Geological Survey. It also put out a warning in the greater Batavia area for about three hours, where high rises are bent and some are released.
In many houses in Cianjur, chunks of concrete and tiles fell inside the rooms.
Shopkeeper Dewi Risma was working with customers when she was shocked and ran to the exit.
“The vehicles stopped on the road because the movement was very strong,” he said. “I felt it move three times, but the first time it was very strong for about 10 seconds. The roof of the shop next to the warehouse at my work had collapsed, and two people said it was hit.”
Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency recorded at least 25 aftershocks.
The region of more than 270 million people is often hit by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis due to its location on an arc of volcanoes and a fault line in the Pacific Basin known as the “Ring of Fire”.
In February, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake killed at least 25 people and injured more than 460 in West Sumatra province. In January 2021, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake killed more than 100 people and injured nearly 6,500 in the province of West Sulawesi.
The powerful Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami in 2004 killed 230,000 people in twelve countries, most of them in Indonesia.
(function(d, s, id){ var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));
The post 162 died as Indonesia quakes knocking down houses, buildings and roads