Monsoon rains force halt in Indonesia quake rescue efforts

Searchers in Indonesia on Wednesday rescued a 6yearold boy who was trapped for two days under the rubble of his house which collapsed in an earthquake that killed at least 271 people as heavy monsoon rains lashed survivors in makeshift shelters and forced a suspension of rescue effortsThe death toll was likely to rise with many people still missing some remote devastated areas still unreachable and more than 2000 people injured in Mondays 56 magnitude quakeHospitals near the epicentre on densely populated Java island were already overwhelmed with patients hooked up to IV drips lying on stretchers and cots in tents set up outside awaiting further treatmentIt was the most deadly earthquake in Indonesia since a 2018 earthquake and tsunami in Sulawesi killed about 4340 peopleAlso Read Delhi court directs Tihar Jail to provide Satyendar Jain food as per rulesMany of the dead in this weeks earthquake were public school students who had finished their classes for the day and were taking extra lessons at Islamic schools when the buildings collapsed West Java Gov Ridwan Kamil saidMore than 12000 army personnel were deployed on Wednesday to bolster search efforts by police the search and rescue agency and volunteers said Suharyanto chief of the National Disaster Mitigation AgencySuharyanto who like many Indonesians uses only one name said aid was reaching thousands of people left homeless who fled to temporary shelters where supplies were being taken by foot over the rough terrainHe said rescuers recovered three more bodies on Wednesday and rescued a 6yearold boy who was found alive next to the dead body of his grandmother under the rubble of his housePolice soldiers and other rescue personnel used jackhammers circular saws farm tools and their bare hands to desperately dig in the worsthit area of Cijendil village where a landslide left tons of mud rocks and treesThe government appeared to be focused on finding bodies and wherever possible survivors Authorities struggled to bring tractors and other heavy equipment over washedout roads to villages hit by landslidesResidents however complained the government was too slowMuhammad Tohir 48 was sitting in his living room with his family in Cijendil when the catastrophe struck He and his family managed to escape but his sister and her two children were crushed by a landslide a few kilometres miles from his houseWhen I came to my sisters house I was devastated by what I saw Tohir said Dozens of houses had been buried by landslides It felt like doomsday He said at least 45 people had been buried alive under tons of mudTohir and other residents searched for the missing using farm tools and managed to pull out two bodies Two days later rescue personnel arrived to help in the searchThe government was too slow in responding to this disaster Tohir saidHe said he would not give up until they could pull his sister and nieces out of the mudIn several hardhit areas water food and medical supplies were being distributed from trucks and authorities deployed military personnel carrying food medicine blankets and field tentsVolunteers and rescue personnel erected temporary shelters for those left homeless in several villages in Cianjur districtAbout 6000 police soldiers and volunteers dug through the debris with their bare hands shovels and hoes as heavy rain hindered their effortsArif Yulianto a search and rescue coordinator said they were forced to halt their efforts Wednesday afternoon because the rain made the landslide areas unstable He said the search would resume early ThursdaySuharyanto said 2043 people were injured including more than 600 who were still receiving treatment for serious injuries and that nearly 62000 survivors had been moved to sheltersMost sought protection under makeshift shelters that were lashed by the downpours Only a few were lucky to be protected by tarpaulincovered tents They said they were running low on food blankets and other aid as emergency supplies were rushed to the regionAbout 40 people remained missing Suharyanto said at a news conference Rescue operations were focused on about a dozen villages in Cianjur where people were believed trappedMore than 56230 houses in Cianjur were damaged and more than 170 public buildings were destroyed including 31 schools he saidAbout 100 of the 271 confirmed deaths were children Suharyanto saidWe are saddened by this earthquake especially because children have been disproportionately affected said Yacobus Runtuwene of Wahana Visi Indonesia a Christian humanitarian group concerned with child welfareThe magnitude of Mondays earthquake 56 would not typically be expected to cause serious damage But the area is densely populated and experts said the shallowness of the quake and the lack of earthquakeresistant infrastructure contributed to the damageMore than 25 million people live in rural mountainous Cianjur district including about 175000 in its main town which has the same namePresident Joko Widodo visited Cianjur on Tuesday and pledged to rebuild its infrastructure and provide assistance of up to 50 million rupiah USD 3180 to each resident whose house was damagedThe country of more than 270 million people is frequently struck by earthquakes volcanic eruptions and tsunamis because of its location on the arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin known as the Ring of FireA powerful Indian Ocean quake and tsunami in 2004 killed 230000 people in a dozen countries most of them in IndonesiaThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever