Relief Workers Rush to Dig Out Quake Survivors in Indonesia

Relief workers raced to pull survivors from collapsed buildings and deliver urgently needed food and water on Thursday as strong aftershocks rattled earthquake-devastated islands in northern Indonesia.

Nearly three days after the huge quake, several people were pulled alive from the rubble of their homes, but they were greatly outnumbered by dead bodies and aid officials warned the toll could rise as rescuers reach remote areas.

According to Reuters, three or four international rescue teams, Singaporeans and volunteers from places such as Norway, along with hundreds of Indonesian troops are scouring the rubble looking for survivors.

Indonesian officials say as many as 2,000 people are feared to have died, many of them trapped under the rubble. A U.N. statement said some 500 were confirmed killed.

Several hundred people are reported to have died on the isolated Banyak island group just north of Nias. Simeulue island, also to the north of Nias, suffered widespread damage as well.

Aid officials said relief supplies were flowing better on Thursday, but water and food remained in short supply and many roads were impassable due to quake damage.

"There's very little water and people are panicking," Jude Barrand, spokeswoman for aid agency SurfAid International, told Reuters from northern Medan city.

"They're hungry, there's no food. The market was destroyed."

The U.N.'s World Food Program estimated 200,000 Nias residents would need food aid for about two months.

The International Organisation for Migration, which is sending 25 truck-loads of food and other relief supplies to the island, said nearly 20,000 people were without drinking water.

At least three aftershocks rocked the area off the west coast of Sumatra island, one of them measured at 6.3 on the Richter scale by the Hong Kong observatory, fraying survivors' nerves.

Hungry survivors who fled to the hills for fear of massive waves similar to the Indian Ocean tsunami that struck the area were returning to the main town in Nias, Gunungsitoli.

But many were too scared to stay inside buildings.

Grieving residents on the mostly Christian island buried their friends and relatives in makeshift coffins.

Meanwhile, a contingent of Australian medics has arrived on the island. Three Singaporean Chinook helicopters ferried the worst injured off the island to the Sumatran mainland.

The U.S. Navy hospital ship Mercy and supply ship Niagara Falls, which carries three helicopters, were expected to arrive off Nias in about six days. Japanese medics are also due soon.

Large parts of Nias have been damaged and much of Gunungsitoli has been flattened.

"The damage is huge, but at this stage we cannot calculate the cost," Public Works Minister Djoko Kirmanto, who is visiting Nias, told Reuters.





Kenneth Chan
Ecumenical Press