Mudslide survivors lose hope for relatives
Fidelito Ahmad, The Jakarta Post, Mojokerto
Mulyadi, 41, a resident of Jl. Ngagel Tirto, Mojokerto, East Java, burst into tears when a forensic expert at Surabaya's Dr. Soetomo hospital confirmed on Friday that one of the seven unidentified corpses in the hospital morgue was his wife, Sri Utami.
The sad confirmation ended his one-day wait from the time the corpses had been taken to Surabaya from Dr. Wahidin Sudiro Husodo general hospital in Mojokerto a day before.
"I was already sure that my wife was one of the seven dead," Mulyadi said weakly.
Sri's body was found crushed under a huge rock by a rescue team on Wednesday night.
She was one of the victims of the sudden mudslide on Wednesday that wiped the Padusan hot springs tourist resort off the face of the earth.
Some 60 people, mostly school-aged children, are feared dead; 36 bodies -- including the seven in the Surabaya hospital -- have already been identified while 26 people are still missing.
The mudflow also injured five others, three of whom are still in a serious condition.
Mulyadi said his family -- which included Sri, 35, and their two sons Ramadoni, 9, and Rizky, 6 -- spent the Idul Fitri holiday at the resort.
"My wife had this rheumatic problem, so we decided to go there. We've been visiting the resort once a week since September. At the time (of the mudslide), there were some 60 people bathing in the pool," Mulyadi said.
Suddenly, they heard people shouting, "There's water coming! there's water coming!" Mulyadi quickly jumped out of the pool carrying Rizky, followed by Sri.
At the front entrance to the resort, dozens of people were already struggling to get out.
When she realized that Ramadoni was not with her, Sri ran back to the pool, remembering that the little boy was playing in the cold water pool next to the hot one.
A thundering roar was then heard, the terrifying sound of the tons of mud and boulders that engulfed the resort just a few seconds after Mulyadi and Rizky managed to get out. Next thing they heard were cries for help, which quickly dissipated as the massive boulders entombed the area where the pools had been just a few short minutes before.
"I said a prayer, hoping that God would grant me a miracle by saving my wife and child," said Mulyadi sobbing distraughtly.
At the time of going to press, Ramadoni, or Doni, had yet to be found. As were 10 students from the SMU PGRI II Mojokerto State Senior High School.
On the day of the mudslide, the students were climbing up Mount Welirang. The Padusan resort was located on the slopes of the mountain.
On Thursday, Wiwit, 23, a resident of Mojokerto, was seen leaving the Sumber Glagah Health Center in Pacet.
He had been checking one by one the clothes, bags, sandals, shoes, and other personal belongings found by the rescue teams at the disaster scene and later placed on the veranda of the health center.
But Wiwit found nothing that belonged to his brother, M. Horizon, or Roni, who was one of the students.
He then went to the Rekso Waluyo hospital downtown to find out if their bodies had been brought there. Again his trip was in vain.
"Roni left with his friends on Wednesday. He called around 11:30 p.m. on his cell phone, but I couldn't fully understand him. But he was screaming for help as he had been hit by a rock and got trapped underneath it. He asked me to come to Pacet," Wiwit said on Friday.
"He also said that he was just above the hot springs. But up until today, we have heard nothing from him nor about him. But the body of one of his friends, Ambarwati, was found at the resort as she decided not to hike up the mountain that afternoon," he added.