Prayer mat: A congregation member pulls out a carpet from a collapsed mosque in Padang, West Sumatra, on Friday. Search and rescue workers raced against time to find bodies and survivors of Wednesday’s devastating 7.6-magnitude quake. (JP/J. Adiguna)
Rescuers encountered difficulties distributing aid Friday to areas devastated by a powerful earthquake in West Sumatra, while cries for help spurred the frenzied search for survivors amid shortages of heavy equipment and power cuts.
The United Nations said about 1,100 people may have been killed in and around Padang, the capital city of West Sumatra hardest hit by the 7.6 magnitude quake on Wednesday, as government officials said thousands more were still trapped under the rubble of toppled houses, hospitals, schools and other buildings.
At least 715 people were already confirmed dead.
However there was some sense of hope with the emerging of a number of survivors from collapsed buildings including a hotel where some 90 guests were reportedly staying.
The Australian Embassy in Jakarta said it is checking hospitals in Sumatra to find its citizens as about 60 Australians were thought to be not accounted for.
Paramedics and rescuers laid out dozens of corpses, and the stench of decomposing bodies filled the air.
Overstretched rescuers dug through the debris of damaged buildings, occasionally locating survivors but mostly retrieving bodies.
As darkness fell, floodlights were rigged up above shattered buildings so work could continue through the night.
Earlier in the day, they pulled two women alive from their collapsed language college, nearly two days after the quake.
A frantic search for survivors was focused on the Ambacang Plaza Hotel, where some victims were believed earlier to alive, amid cries for help from the collapsed hotel.
Although 60 people were feared trapped the search was suspended Friday afternoon until Saturday.
When the quake hit, some 20 fishermen from West Sumatra were attending a maritime seminar at the hotel. Only one survivor had so far been found, while a local senior maritime official, who was a speaker at the event, was declared missing.
Another collapsed building expected result in many dead was the four-story Sentra Pasar Raya (SPR)market located at the former bus Goan Hoat terminal in Padang.
However, the search for victims was yet to start at the market building, where 47-year old eye-witness Dasril said that about 600 people were inside at the time of the quake.
“When the quake struck, I stood here (in front the SPR building). I could not run because of a very strong tremor. Passing cars hit each other. I saw from the SPR's front gate that only around 25 people came out of it," he said.
Some victims have yet to receive any outside help, while in other stricken areas rescue workers were present and trying to help.
"Please be patient," President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told a crowd of people whose relatives
are missing, assuring them that the government was doing everything in its power to save lives, Reuters reported.
The coordination unit for disaster mitigation (Satkorlak) in West Sumatra said it was having diffi-
culty distributing aid to quake-stricken areas, because of lack of communication and transportation facilities.
Satkorlak operation control chief Ade Edward said it lacked trucks to distribute the aid which was piling up at the province’s gubernatorial residence.
He said the Satkorlak was waiting for reports from affected regencies on how much food and equipment they needed, and what items.
National Disaster Management Agency spokesman Priyadi Kardono suggested that local government make use of RAPI (Radio Antar Penduduk Indonesia) to communicate with the regencies instead of relying on phone lines and the Internet.
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