Indonesia Earthquake Kills at Least 2,700

http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds...ap2777432.html

(Gold9472: My condolensces to everyone affected by this tragedy.)

By IRWAN FIRDAUS , 05.27.2006, 08:06 AM

A powerful earthquake flattened buildings in central Indonesia early Saturday, killing at least 2,700 people and injuring thousands more in the country's worst disaster since the 2004 tsunami.

The magnitude-6.2 quake struck at 5:54 a.m. near the ancient city of Yogyakarta 250 miles east of the capital, Jakarta, as most people were sleeping, causing death and damage in many nearby towns.

Houses, hotels and government buildings collapsed, sending hysterical people running through the streets. Many roads and bridges were destroyed, hindering efforts to get taxis and pickup trucks filled with wounded to hospitals overflowing with patients.

In hardest hit Bantul district, rescuers tried to pull bodies from the rubble as residents started digging mass graves.

Rows of corpses awaited burial beneath a blazing sun, with village heads recording their names so they could be added to the official death toll.

Subarjo, a 70-year-old food vendor, sobbed next to his dead wife, his house destroyed.

"I couldn't help my wife ... I was trying to rescue my children, one with a broken leg, and then the house collapsed," he said. "I have to accept this as our destiny, as God's will."

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered the army to help evacuate victims and arrived in densely populated Central Java province Saturday afternoon with a team of Cabinet ministers to oversee rescue operations.

Twelve hours after the quake struck, the number of dead stood at 2,727, said Social Affairs Ministry official Sopar Jaya, with two-thirds of the fatalities occurring in the devastated district of Bantul.

"The numbers just keep rising," said Arifin Muhadi of the Indonesian Red Cross, adding that nearly 2,900 people were hurt.

Yogyakarta about 18 miles from the sea and in the chaos that followed the quake, false rumors of an impending tsunami sent thousands of people fleeing to higher ground in cars and on motorbikes.

The city is 1,390 miles southeast of Aceh province, where 131,000 people died in December 2004 tsunami, triggered by a 9.1-magnitude earthquake under the sea.

Doctors struggled to care for the injured, hundreds of whom were lying on plastic sheets, straw mats and even newspapers outside the overcrowded hospitals, some hooked to intravenous drips dangling from trees.

"We need help here," said Kusmarwanto of Bantul Muhammadiyah Hospital, the closest hospital to the quake's epicenter, adding that his hospital alone had 39 bodies.

At nearby Dr. Sardjito Hospital, health officials tallied 60 dead, but more bodies were lined up in the hallway and some family members were taking them home before they could be added to the official toll.

"We have hundreds of injured people, our emergency care unit is overwhelmed," said Heru Nugroho.

The quake cracked the runway at the airport in Yogyakarta, home to the famed Borobudur temple, closing it to aircraft until at least Sunday while inspections take place, Transport Minister Hatta Radjasa said.

The city is home to the 9th century Borobudur Buddhist temple, one of considered one of the seven wonders of the world. Officials did not immediately know if it was affected in the quake.

Nearby Prambanan, a spectacular Hindu temple to the southeast, suffered some damage but it was not immediately clear how much.

The quake's epicenter was close to the Mount Merapi volcano, which has been rumbling for weeks and sending out large clouds of hot gas and ash.

Activity increased on Saturday, with one eruption that came soon after the quake sending debris some 2 miles down its western flank, but Bambang Dwiyanto of the Energy and Mineral Ministry said the two events did not appear to be directly related.

Almost all people had already been evacuated away from the volcano's danger zone, and there were no reports of injuries as a result of the eruption.

Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.