Despair mounts in search for victims

Three days after running a manual search in a buried hamlet in Cianjur, West Java, a joint search and rescue team were pessimistic on the chances of finding more bodies amid piles of rocks remaining from Wednesday's earthquake and landslide.

"The rocks are too big and heavy for our two excavators to remove.

So our team is continuing the search only in several spots *where* they can dig manually," Supardan, the field coordinator for the evacuation and relief effort, said Saturday.

The village of Cikangkareng, some 100 kilometers south of Jakarta, is so far the worst hit area in the earthquake which struck the western part of Java, including the capital.

As of Saturday only 25 bodies were found although some 70 people were buried alive in the landslide triggered by the quake. The remaining victims are believed to have little chance of survival.

Supardan said the team had also considered using dynamite to remove some of the biggest rocks but were afraid this would trigger the surrounding cliff to slide.

"Now we can only rely on our tracker dog to locate bodies which were buried just beneath the rock piles," he said. "And the rest just depends on luck."

A 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck western Java on Wednesday afternoon, killing dozens of people and displacing hundreds of thousands from their homes.

The epicenter was around 30 kilometers beneath the sea southwest of Tasikmalaya, West Java, over 140 kilometers from Jakarta.

Only a few excavators could operate at the edge of the site, leaving the largely manual work to the joint rescue team, comprising members of the Army, the search and rescue team, the local Red Cross and several independent social organizations.

Citing the regulations on disasters, Supardan said that following an evacuation process one week after a disaster, the joint team can assist families looking for their members for up to six days with the approval of local administrations.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people from neighboring areas flocked to the site on Saturday.

"It's even more terrifying than what I've seen from the television," Edin, who rode his motorcycle 25 kilometer away from Leles district, said.

While survivors continued to find relatives and valuables under the rocks, the visitors took pictures.

Survivors reported a lack of food supplies and makeshift shelters as aid trickled in. In the Cianjur village alone six doctors were on call daily, detik.com reported.

In Garut, West Java, both adults and toddlers have caught fever, Antara reported.

"We are lacking tents so many people have to sleep all night on the open field. We need at least six more tents to accommodate the displaced, as well as a tent for a public kitchen," said Jujun Juhana, Pemeungpeuk district head, on Saturday.

The head of the local health agency, Hendy Budiman, said he had deployed paramedics and prepared more medicines to prevent the spread of acute respiratory ailments and diarrhea among the refugees.

No major power or industrial installations were hit in the quake. However the small town of Garut alone reported major financial losses, Antara reported.

The disaster however has not stopped many survivors from fasting during Ramadan.

In Tasikmalaya, many refugees woke up to have instant noodles for their pre-dawn meals in their makeshift shelters.

"We eat instant noodles or anything available," said suvivor Usep Rudi.