JAKARTA – Racing time and devastating conditions, paramedics and rescuers struggled on Thursday, October 1, to save people trapped under debris after a powerful quake amid fears of a 4-figures death toll, while survivors pleaded for aid. "The quicker you can get there the better," Julie Ryan, a spokeswoman for the British-based charity International Rescue Corps (IRC), told Agence France Presse (AFP).
Thousands of people were feared dead and many more trapped under debris after a 7.6-magnitude earthquake struck bustling port city of Padang city, capital of Sumatra Island.
Hundreds of buildings were toppled sparking fires in the gridlocked and blacked-out city, home to nearly a million people.
Destruction, Rescue (in pictures) Rescue teams searched into the night for survivors in piles of mangled concrete and steel that mark the spots where buildings once stood. Many of them dug with their bare hands through rubble turned to mush by heavy rain.
"It depends how serious the injuries are and how strong a person is," said Seiji Amano, an official at Japan's Fire and Disaster Management Agency.
"But, generally speaking, the first 72 hours are the key."
Overcrowded hospitals were bracing for more victims as ambulances tried to find its way amid rubbles.
Emilzon, a medic, said they were treating 200 people for broken bones, head injuries and trauma, many of whom were car crash victims caught in the chaos.
"We are running out of doctors and nurses because we are overwhelmed with patients."
The government says at least 770 people are now known to have died in the quake, which followed a massive 8.0-magnitude tremor that spawned a deadly tsunami in the Samoan islands of the South Pacific.
Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari said the death toll could be in the thousands, given the widespread damage.
Both Samoan islands and Indonesia's 17,000 islands sprawl lie along a belt of intense volcanic and seismic activity, part of what is called the "Pacific Ring of Fire".
Damage Everywhere
Scenes of desperation, hope and despair unfolded in Padang, which has become ground-zero of the disaster on the island of Sumatra.
"I have been through quakes here before and this was the worst," American Greg Hunt, 38, told Reuters at Padang airport.
"There is blood everywhere, people with their limbs cut off. We saw buildings collapsed, people dying."
Scenes of devastated buildings with people trapped in were dominating the view.
"The big buildings are down," Australian businesswoman Jane Liddon said.
"The concrete buildings are all down, the hospitals, the main markets, down and burned.”
Two Indonesian Hercules transport planes carrying medical aid, as well as 20,000 tents and 10,000 blankets, flew to Padang on Thursday, the state Antara news agency reported.
But a Reuters reporter in the city said there was little sign of much aid being distributed and that fuel was also in short supply.
Nasaruddin, a 45-year-old father of four who lost his house, was camping out in a 1-metre by 3-metre tent made from some poles, a tarp and a piece of rusty corrugated iron.
"I share this with three other families," he said.
"We are waiting for aid from the government, food, water and materials to fix our house, especially cement and sand,” he explained.
"It's very hard to find food right now. Who knows when the aid will come, it may be next month but I think it could be three months before we can move out of this tent."
Source: IslamOnline
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