Her reddened eyes darting back and forth across the wreckage, Andriani waited in front of the crumbled school where her teenage daughter was taking a class when disaster struck.
The 49-year-old mother stood crying as rescuers dug with their hands through rubble turned to mush by heavy rain in the devastated city of Padang, “Ground Zero” on the quake-hit Indonesian island of Sumatra.
“I’ve been waiting here since yesterday. I haven’t been home yet and keep praying to God my daughter is alive,” she said.
PHOTO: EPA
The building was one of scores toppled by a 7.6-magnitude quake that struck on Wednesday in a disaster officials said is likely to have left thousands dead.
After a night of raging fires triggered by the major quake, thousands packed the roads in cars and motorbikes to escape the city, jamming roads as blaring ambulances tried to negotiate a way through the slow-moving traffic.
Andriani’s 14-year-old daughter was one of dozens of children feared killed during classes at the evening school, where the third floor had collapsed, smashing the two stories of classrooms below.
Shouts from inside the wreckage had helped overworked rescuers pull out nine to safety, but the bodies of eight children had also been retrieved and workers prepared rows of body bags in orange, green and yellow.
The grim scene was repeated across Padang, a city of nearly 1 million people, and the surrounding area as buildings from hospitals to hotels and homes buckled under the shaking.
Officials complained of a shortage of heavy equipment to clear away debris, but medicine, food and experts were speeding to the area to help with the rescue effort.
At the five-story Mariani Hotel, owner Arif Husein described responding to the screams of a guest trapped under a table in the wreckage of the lobby.
“I asked him not to move too much so he could conserve his energy. At eight this morning, an excavator started digging at the site,” Husein said.
Broken air-conditioning units, bedsheets, and wooden planks from smashed bed heads could be seen protruding from the debris. Not far from the city center, a concrete slab that had served as a roof sat on top of four stories that had disintegrated, leaving a car showroom on the ground floor pulverized debris. Three flattened cars sat outside.
A security guard by the showroom said most of the 15 employees had managed to evacuate the building, but two were caught inside.
Their bodies were pulled out of the rubble overnight.
Employee Herli, 24, was sleeping outside the car showroom where he had worked until Wednesday.
“I’m afraid two employees are still trapped inside,” he said.
Although Herli was grateful his entire family was still alive, he wondered where his income would now come from.
“I don’t know what will happen next, now that my office is like this,” he said.
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
‘SHORTSIGHTED’: Using aid as leverage is punitive, would not be regarded well among Pacific Island nations and would further open the door for China, an academic said New Zealand has suspended millions of dollars in budget funding to the Cook Islands, it said yesterday, as the relationship between the two constitutionally linked countries continues to deteriorate amid the island group’s deepening ties with China. A spokesperson for New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said in a statement that New Zealand early this month decided to suspend payment of NZ$18.2 million (US$11 million) in core sector support funding for this year and next year as it “relies on a high trust bilateral relationship.” New Zealand and Australia have become increasingly cautious about China’s growing presence in the Pacific
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday erupted again with giant ash and smoke plumes after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali. Several eruptions sent ash up to 5km into the sky on Tuesday evening to yesterday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10km into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150km kilometers away. The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8km from the crater. Officers also
ESPIONAGE: The British government’s decision on the proposed embassy hinges on the security of underground data cables, a former diplomat has said A US intervention over China’s proposed new embassy in London has thrown a potential resolution “up in the air,” campaigners have said, amid concerns over the site’s proximity to a sensitive hub of critical communication cables. The furor over a new “super-embassy” on the edge of London’s financial district was reignited last week when the White House said it was “deeply concerned” over potential Chinese access to “the sensitive communications of one of our closest allies.” The Dutch parliament has also raised concerns about Beijing’s ideal location of Royal Mint Court, on the edge of the City of London, which has so
RSS