Nias quake kills hundreds

Nias quake kills hundreds

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Hundreds of islanders in North Sumatra and Aceh who escaped the terrible waves of three months ago were killed early Tuesday in a strong earthquake.

Residents started to search through smoldering rubble for survivors on Nias island on Tuesday and relatives wept over the bodies of the dead after a huge undersea earthquake struck the region, triggering tsunami warnings and causing massive panic around the Indian Ocean rim.

Estimates of the number dead ranged from 330 to 2,000, apart from some 100 in Simeulue island in the province of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam.

The epicenter of Monday's quake, which measured 8.7 on the Richter scale, was just 320 kilometers away from that of the Dec. 26 quake, which sent giant waves crashing into 12 nations, killing over 273,000 people, mostly in Aceh. Nias was also affected by the tsunami but only some 130 were reported dead.

Unlike residents on Sumatra's mainland, locals on Nias and Simeulue said they had escaped to higher ground following the earthquake after seeing the ocean recede, which they knew meant a tsunami was on the way. They cited their elders' stories of similar disasters, which, among other things, had led to the stranding of whales.

Budi Atmaji Adiputro, a spokesman for the Coordinating Agency for National Disaster Relief, said rescuers found 330 bodies in the rubble on Tuesday. The toll was expected to rise as more bodies were believed to be trapped in collapsed buildings, he said.

From the air, it appeared that about 30 percent of the buildings in Gunung Sitoli, the island's biggest city, were destroyed, and there was significant damage to the island's second biggest town, Teluk Dalam, Associated Press reported.

But Antara said that some 80 percent of the buildings in Gunung Sitoli had been destroyed. It added that many bridges were down, while telecommunications and electricity were still out. Most people in Gunung Sitoli had fled to the hills amid fears of a tsunami.

The head of the health office in Aceh province, Mulya Hasjmy, told Agence France Presse that a disaster task force on Simeulue island had counted 100 dead.

But Vice President Yusuf Kalla told the British Broadcasting Corporation that reports from Nias indicated that between 1,000 and 2,000 people had died. Nias island, which is popular with surfers, has a population of some 700,000 people.

The undersea quake struck about 200 kilometers off the west coast of Sumatra and prompted Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Thailand, among other nations, to issue imminent tsunami warnings.

Alerts went out on television and radio, while police and local residents tried to shepherd people away from the coast towards higher ground.

But the giant tsunamis never materialized and three hours after the quake Indonesia and Thailand gave the all-clear. Sri Lanka and India followed several hours later, AFP reported.

Survivors -- frail, weeping and swathed in bloody bandages -- described how they were trapped by falling rubble when the giant tremor struck.

Some 20 people, mostly suffering from broken bones, deep cuts and bruises, were flown from Nias aboard two UN helicopters to the Sumatra island city of Sibolga, where they were transferred to hospital.

"I was fast asleep when the earthquake occurred but I woke up just in time to escape from the crumbling roof of my dormitory," 20-year-old student Serasi Hulu, who suffered a broken arm and fingers, told AFP.

Pale, bruised and visibly weak from his ordeal, Hulu said he had tried to dash from his room but was pinned down by falling masonry.

"Before I managed to get out of the house, part of the roof fell on me and I was trapped for several hours along with two of my high school mates," he said. "I believe they may have died."

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who decided to delay official trips to Australia, New Zealand and East Timor, held an emergency Cabinet meeting on Tuesday to coordinate the relief operation for Nias.

"We had just ended the emergency relief operation in Aceh and Nias when we were taken by surprise again by the earthquake in Nias and Simeulue," said Susilo, who is also planning to visit the islands.

He also welcomed the immediate response of the international community and the offers to help Indonesia.

Singapore said it had dispatched military helicopters and a team of medical and rescue workers to Nias, while Japan offered to send relief goods, paramedics and troops.

Australia promised US$1 million, while China announced it would donate $300,000.

Meanwhile, aid flights began reaching Nias island on Tuesday. Bad weather, a damaged airport and heavy cloud cover kept many flights from landing, but in the afternoon there were reports of at least three planes touching down on the island.

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