Indonesian quake toll grows to 35

Rescuers on Friday continued to search for missing people in a mountainous village devastated by a powerful earthquake that struck Indonesia’s westernmost province earlier this week. So far, 35 are confirmed dead, and eight remain missing.

“The local people believe the missing victims were buried by landslides triggered by the quake, or washed out by gusting river water when the sliding earth hit the river,” said Bayu Gautama, a volunteer with Aksi Cepat Tanggap, an Indonesian humanitarian organization. “Most of [the missing] are children who were playing at their yards when the land slide was happening.”

Thousands of people were left homeless in the Bener Meriah and Central Aceh regencies after a 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck inland at 0737 GMT Tuesday, at a depth of just 10 kilometers in the mountainous heart of Aceh. The earthquake triggered landslides and flattened buildings. The tremor was felt strongly for around 15 seconds from Aceh to the neighboring North Sumatra’s capital of Medan.

The Indonesian National Disaster Mitigation Agency said Friday that four more bodies — all children –had been uncovered under the mud in Bah Village in Central Aceh late Thursday. The quake left 275 people injured.

Mr. Gautama said the landslide isolated the Serempah area where Bah Village is located, leaving a difficult, 5-kilometer walk for the rescuers trying to get in.

“The villagers have to sleep in makeshift tents as aid started to trickle in the forms of food and medicines. But these people also need trauma healing,” he added.

The Antara news agency quoted Central Aceh Regent Nasaruddin as saying that the government will find new homes for the villagers because the village is no longer suitable for living.

The quake was triggered by a shift in the 10-kilometer Takengon segment of the Great Sumatra Fault line, Danny Hilman, an earthquake expert from the government-run Indonesian Institute of Sciences, known locally by its acronym LIPI, told the Koran Tempo newspaper. The fault line runs the entire length of the resource-rich island, which centuries ago was named Swarna Dwipa, or Island of Gold, by Indian traders.

Aceh sits on top of more than 200 kilometers of the Great Sumatra Fault Line.

A powerful earthquake off Aceh in 2004 triggered a tsunami, killing around 230,000 people across Asia and causing damage as far as South Africa.

Indonesia is prone to seismic tremors due to its location along the arc of volcanoes and fault line encircling the Pacific Ocean, which are known as the Pacific Ring of Fire.

Friday 5 July 2013

http://blogs.wsj.com/searealtime/2013/07/05/indonesian-quake-toll-grows-to-35/