Efforts to provide earthquake relief pick up pace
International aid workers joined the rush Wednesday to provide medical care, water and shelter to 200,000 people left homeless by a devastating earthquake in Yogyakarta province, aided by the reopening of the airport closest to the disaster zone.
“We are now reaching more and more victims,” said Jan Egeland, the U.N.’s top humanitarian official, as more than 20 nations joined the rescue effort. “I am getting reports that we are making enormous progress.”
Saturday’s magnitude-6.3 quake near the former royal capital of Yokyakarta pounded more than 105,000 homes into piles of bricks, tiles and wood in less than a minute, as many victims slept or were preparing breakfast, government officials said.
More than 5,800 people were killed, and survivors complained in the days after the temblor that aid was slow in coming.
Thousands of women and children lined the roads in hardest-hit Bantul district, where two-thirds of the fatalities occurred, begging for money.
But Egeland said the crisis appeared to be easing, thanks in part to major improvements in coordination among aid organizations and nations since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed 131,000 people in Aceh province alone.
At two hospitals in Bantul, parking lots and hallways that were filled with hundreds of injured in the days after the quake were clear, with most patients now being treated in beds.
Workers removed a tent from the parking lot at Yogyakarta’s largest hospital, Sardjito, that had been used to shelter patients.
Getting food and fresh water to survivors remains a pressing concern, however, aid workers said. The main road to the quake zone was clogged with relief vehicles.
The Asian Development Bank announced a total of US$60 million in grants and low-interest loans to Indonesia for rebuilding costs in the earthquake zone. Foreign governments also have pledged millions of dollars.
Two U.S. military cargo planes carrying a mobile field hospital were among the first to land at the airport in Yogyakarta after cracks in the runway were repaired, and U.S. Marines were to set up a portable field hospital on Wednesday.
Relief teams from China, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore were also providing assistance.
The number of dead has climbed to 5,846, said Social Affairs Ministry official Jaswadi and more than 200,000 people were left homeless.
Abdul Aziz Ahmad, the head of a Malaysia search and rescue team, said hope had faded of finding more survivors or bodies.
“The collapsed homes were all so small that anyone who was trapped would have been extracted by their family members,” Abdul said. His team conducted a full day’s search in Bantul on Monday and found only one body. (AP)