An earthquake survivor trapped in a collapsed hotel in western Indonesia sent a text message saying he and some others were alive, triggering a frantic rescue operation, but hopes faded yesterday as sniffer dogs failed to detect life.
Padang’s police chief said voices and claps were heard from survivors buried in the Ambacang Hotel since the 7.6-magnitude quake struck on Wednesday, killing at least 715 people. He said one survivor — who had been staying in Room 338 — sent a text message to relatives Friday, saying he and some others were still alive.
“We estimate there are still eight people trapped alive under Ambacang Hotel,” Colonel Boy Rafli Amar told reporters. “We are still trying hard to evacuate them.”
PHOTO: EPA
After more than six hours of searching, Amar said: “So far, rescuers have found nothing.”
As he spoke, rescuers used backhoes and drills to try and break a passage through thick slabs of concrete of the six-story hotel.
Hidehiro Murase, the head of a Japanese search dog team, said its search had been fruitless.
“We did an extensive search this morning, but there were no signs of life. Our dogs are trained to smell for living people, not the dead, and they didn’t sense anything,” he said.
Six Swiss rescuers entered the rubble through a hole but came out minutes later.
“I haven’t seen any sign of bodies yet, but the stench filling the air is very strong,” said one of them, Villa Stefano, wiping sweat and dust from his face.
The quake devastated more than 100km along the western coast of Sumatra island, prompting a huge international aid operation in a country that sits on a major geological fault zone and has dozens of quakes every year.
The UN estimated the death toll could rise to 1,100.
More than 20,000 houses and buildings were destroyed and 2,400 people hospitalized across seven district, said Priyadi Kardono, a spokesman for the national disaster agency.
Block after block of toppled hotels, hospitals, office buildings and schools had yet to be searched in Padang, a port city of 900,000. Dozens of unclaimed corpses were laid out in the scorching sun at Dr M. Djamil General Hospital, Padang’s biggest, which was damaged in the quake.
Eric van Druten, a 31-year-old Australian surfer, said several of his friends were staying at the Ambacang and another hotel. He said he ran toward the swimming pool when the earthquake began to shake the building.
“But the wall collapsed, so we had to get out. There is still a heap of people in the pool,” he said.
In remoter areas outside Padang the full scale of the disaster was only starting to become clear, with villages wiped out and survivors drinking coconut water after their drinking sources were contaminated.
“In my village, 75 people were buried. There are about 300 people missing from this whole area. We need tents and excavators to get the bodies but the roads are cut off,” said Ogi Martapela, 28, who said his older brother died in the landslide.
Another resident said it was too late for aid.
“Don’t bother trying to bring aid up there,” said Afiwardi, who pointed past a landslide that cut off a road. “Everyone is dead.”
The aid effort appeared to be cranking up yesterday, but it has yet to reach many areas.
“We have not received a thing. We need food, clothes, blankets, milk. It seems like the government has forgotten about us,” said Siti Armaini, sitting outside her collapsed home in Pariaman, about 40km north of Padang and nearer to the quake’s epicenter.
The mayor of the badly hit district of Padang Pariaman said by telephone that heavy digging machinery was starting to reach some areas hit by landslides, but that survivors desperately needed tents and blankets after losing their homes.
“We are devastated. Eighty percent of houses have caved in, roads are split and cracked,”Mayor Muslim Kasim said.
Testos, an Indonesian Red Cross worker at an aid station in central Padang, said they now had around half what was needed.
“We also need drinking water and clothes because many peoples clothes were burnt in fires,” he said. “We also need medicines to stop infection.”
Fuel was being rationed amid a power outage, water and food were in short supply and villagers dug out the dead with their bare hands.
As the scale of the destruction became clearer, Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla told reporters in the capital, Jakarta, that the recovery operation would cost at least US$400 million.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese