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I have to be strong for my child: Survivor
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Great loss: A resident walks past the ruins of a mosque devastated during a powerful earthquake in Meuredu, Pidie Jaya, Aceh, on Wednesday. The 6.5 magnitude earthquake whose epicenter was 18 kilometers off the coast of Pidie Jaya regency claimed at least 94 lives and destroyed numerous buildings. (JP/Hotli Simanjuntak)
Rahmawati of Kedai Pangwa village in Pidie Jaya, Aceh, could not hide her deep sadness.
“I have to move on. My life is now for my daughter and her future,”she said.
Sitting under a tent where she and other survivors are temporarily being sheltered, Rahmawati told the story of how she survived the 6.5-magnitude earthquake that killed her husband and two of her children.
More than 100 people were killed in the disaster that struck three regencies in Aceh on Wednesday.
Rahmawati was rescued after being trapped in the rubble of her house for more than six hours.
She recalled her husband, Nazaruddin, 45, trying to open the door to a room where they and two of their three children were sleeping.
The door was jammed. Seconds later, the walls and roof of the home collapsed.
Rahmawati said she saw Nazaruddin and their children, 8-year-old Hami and 4-and-a-half-year-old Hayan Faham, being hit by falling debris and eventually killed.
“For a moment, it was total silence. I didn’t hear my children crying and I could not see anything,” she said.
In the darkness, Rahmawati tried to crawl out of the destroyed house. “But I couldn’t move because my legs were trapped by the falling debris and wedged in,” she said, adding that she tried to shout for help but to no avail.
It was not until a search and rescue team pulled her out that she realized she was still alive.
Rahmawati said she was shocked to see the devastation after she emerged from the rubble.
She said her eldest daughter, Raudah, 8, survived because she had slept at her aunt’s home.
“It has been mixed feelings because I am also grateful that God has saved my life from something I will never forget in my entire life, so Raudah still has me to take care of her,” she said.
“I have to be strong,” she added. “For the sake of my only remaining child.”
Rahmawati’s family previously survived a devastating earthquake and tsunami in 2004.
“I believe in God and we have to be prepared that anytime He could take back anything that belongs to Him, even if it is your loved ones,” Rahmawati said before bursting into tears.
The National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) said displaced people in Pidie Jaya and Bireun regencies were in dire need of clean water and family-sized tents.
“They are afraid to take shelter in buildings. So they prefer to go home and set up tents in their front yards to keep watch on their belongings. Although their houses are not severely damaged they feel more comfortable in their front yards,” BNPB spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.
As of Saturday, the BNPB had recorded 45,239 displaced people in Aceh. Most of them, totaling 43,613 people, were in Pidie Jaya while 1,716 were in Bireun.
The Public Works and Public Housing Ministry has sent four tankers containing 6,000 liters of water, built 70 water posts and installed 80 portable toilets in the area.
Since the strong earthquake hit on Wednesday, residents have experienced 66 aftershocks.
