http://www.smh.com.au/world/quake-rescue-team-arrives-to-a-lost-cause-20091004-ghw1.html
Quake rescue team arrives to a lost cause TOM ALLARD HERALD CORRESPONDENT October 5, 2009 Video will begin in 5 seconds. a.. Stop b.. Play now Replay video I just survived an earthquake Raw video: Australian surfer Brett McGrath shot this video in Padang just moments after his hotel had been wrecked by an earthquake PADANG PARIAMAN: Hopes of rescuing hundreds of people buried in landslides and collapsed homes evaporated just as humanitarian aid began to arrive in the region most devastated by Wednesday's powerful earthquake in the Indonesian province of West Sumatra. In the capital, Padang, heavy-duty equipment and professional rescue teams had been working for days, but 50 kilometres away in Padang Pariaman regency half a dozen villages, some of them obliterated by landslides, were visited by rescue workers for the first time only yesterday. While waiting, people used their hands, farming tools and anything they could find in a vain attempt to retrieve loved ones. The Vice-President, Jusuf Kalla, bluntly summed up the prospects of those buried under rubble or metres of mud, rock and twisted foliage where landslides have occurred: ''We can be sure that they are dead. So now we are waiting for burials.'' The epicentre of the magnitude 7.6 temblor was about 75 kilometres north of Padang, where hundreds of thousands of people live in villages spread from the coast to nearby mountains. More than 600 people are believed to have died in the hillside hamlets of Pariaman. If confirmed, that will take the toll well past 1000. The official toll from the Indonesian disaster management agency was lifted to 603 yesterday. In a separate count, the Health Ministry put the death toll at 715. In Sikabu village, in the foothills of Padang Pariaman regency, all 2000 homes were either badly damaged or destroyed. ''All our belongings have gone . no one has come up to see us,'' said Akhrudin, a grandfather watching family members remove smashed bricks and buckled iron roofing from his home. His granddaughter died in the home next door and seven other family members were injured. ''We have no shelter, all we have is some noodles and eggs.'' One of the injured, Umar, lay nearby under a wooden lean-to tending a badly gashed shoulder and crammed next to the family's belongings. He watched as his wife Mariami searched what remains of the house where she was born 75 years ago. In Jumanak, a wedding party of 100 was engulfed by a landslide. ''When the landslide came, the party had just finished. I heard a big boom of the avalanche. I ran outside and saw the trees fall down,'' Iseh, the 15-year old brother of the bride, Ichi, told Associated Press. ''I tried to get in front of the house with my brothers. We were so afraid. Landslides started coming from all directions. I just ran.'' Four days after the quake, no one in the hamlets of Pariaman expects to find any survivors. The same reality has dawned in Padang. Up to eight people were thought to be alive in the 109-room Ambacang Hotel but rubble at the disaster site collapsed late yesterday as workers dug, ending hopes of a miraculous rescue. Meanwhile, Australian aid continues to pour in. Rescue teams have been to Pariaman to assess the damage, while a Queensland-based search and rescue team took dogs over several collapsed buildings, but found no bodies. Padang's hospitals, many of them badly damaged, remain under great stress and two C-130 Hercules planes are expected to arrive from Australia today with 70 medical personnel and a mobile intensive care unit. The President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, has declared a two-month state of emergency in anticipation of a lengthy clean-up. There have been no confirmed reports of injured or killed Australians, although 24 believed to have been travelling in Sumatra are yet to be accounted for. A 5.5-magnitude earthquake shook West Papua province at 10.36am yesterday, making it the fifth significant quake in the region in the past week. It occurred at a depth of 39 kilometres, 128 kilometres north-west of the provincial capital of Manokwari and there were no reports of injuries. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
