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Jakarta Post

Quake survivors return to normal life

A day after being rocked by a magnitude-6

Apriadi Gunawan (The Jakarta Post)
Medan
Thu, September 8, 2011 Published on Sep. 8, 2011 Published on 2011-09-08T08:00:00+07:00

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Quake survivors return to normal life

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day after being rocked by a magnitude-6.7 earthquake, survivors in the worst-hit Singkil Baru regency and Subulussalam municipality in Aceh, and in Pakpak Bharat regency, North Sumatra, have reportedly started to return to their normal daily activities.

“Despite experiencing a great deal of damage, so far no local activities have been halted. The local people have all returned to their normal routines,” North Sumatra provincial information and communication division head Asren Nasution told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Singkil Police Chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Helmi Kwarta expressed the same view, saying that survivors in Singkil Baru and Subulussalam were busy cleaning up rubble from their houses that had been destroyed by the earthquake.

“We have deployed 87 police personnel to Subulussalam and 100 others to Singkil Baru to help survivors clean up after the quake,” he said.

From Aceh, survivors in Subulussalam and Singkil Baru were reported to have received food aid from their local administrations on Wednesday afternoon, while those in Pakpak Bharat had yet to receive any aid as of Wednesday.

Asren said the reason why the aid for Pakpak Bharat survivors has not yet been distributed is because a team tasked with compiling an inventory on the damage caused by the earthquake has not yet finished its work. “The aid will probably be distributed within two to three days after the inventory is completed,” Asren said.

He said Pakpak Bharat was one of the worst-hit regions, due to its being close to the epicenter of the earthquake in Singkil Baru.

Provisional data so far shows that the earthquake severely damaged 240 private homes; 36 government office buildings; 11 community health centers; 10 churches; 10 mosques; and 10 irrigation facilities in Pakpak Bharat.

Separately, Helmi Kwarta, who also occupies a post in disaster mitigation, said that although the earthquake’s epicenter was in Singkil Baru, the worst damage was caused in Subulussalam. At least 468 private residences were reported to have been severely damaged by the quake, 133 moderately damaged and 2,148 slightly damaged in the two regions.

“The combined financial losses suffered by the regency and the municipality is predicted to be as high as Rp 115 billion,” Helmi told the Post on Wednesday.

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