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Quake survivors appeal for supplies as rain hampers rescue
Death toll approaches 300 with dozens still unaccounted for.
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urvivors of the recent 5.6-magnitude earthquake in Cianjur, West Java, appealed for food and water on Wednesday, as heavy rain and aftershocks hampered rescue efforts among the rubble of devastated villages.
More than 61,000 people have been displaced by the quake and around 2,000 injured, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said on Wednesday. The death toll, as of the same day, had risen to 271, and 40 people remained missing.
The calls for help came as authorities warned that debris from landslides caused by the strong earthquake needed to be cleared as rain forecast for the coming weeks threatened a second disaster, AFP reported.
Two days after the quake flattened their homes, residents were still trying to retrieve priceless belongings, including family photos, religious books and marriage certificates.
"Although some supplies have arrived, it is not enough. We got rice, instant noodles and mineral water, but it's not enough," Mustafa, a 23-year-old resident of Gasol village, told AFP.
Mustafa had just dug through the rubble of an elderly neighbor's house at her request, appearing from the destroyed facade carrying a pile of clothes before returning to collect rice, a gas stove, canisters and frying pans.
In Talaga village, some residents put signs on the windows of damaged houses and the front of tents that read, "We need help!"
In the streets, at least three people held up cardboard boxes, asking for donations.
A shallow 3.9-magnitude aftershock sent panicked evacuees running from shelters on Wednesday, according to an AFP reporter at the scene.
The government has dispatched tents and other supplies to Cianjur for the displaced, and the military deployed 12,000 personnel on Wednesday, officials said. Heavy rain was hampering those efforts in about a dozen villages, where more than 22,000 houses had been destroyed.
"For the refugees [...] their basic life necessities must be guaranteed. Water, food – that's non-negotiable," BNPB head Lt. Gen. Suharyanto said on Wednesday.
Two villages remain isolated, said National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) chief Air Marshal Henri Alfiandi in a social media video.
He said he had received reports of trapped villagers without food and water and some forced to sleep alongside dead bodies.
"The people there can't even ask for help," he said, adding that three helicopters were being sent to drop aid packages.
'Lacking food, medicine'
Another resident appealed to Jakarta to send more supplies.
"My child has a fever and she can't eat. There are many children and old people here. Children need milk, diapers, food and medicine," said 30-year-old Yunisa Yuliani.
Dede Masliyah, a 45-year-old evacuee living in a makeshift tent, said the survivors had yet to receive aid and had been battered by rains overnight.
"We are lacking food and medicines. We desperately need a proper tent because there are many children and small babies here," she said.
Rescue workers retrieved another dead body from the debris of a landslide that hit a section of a highway connecting the regencies of Cianjur and Bogor, team member Arif Yulianto told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
West Java Education Agency head Dedi Supandi said in a statement that at least 26 schools had been heavily damaged in Cugenang and Cilaku districts.
– The Jakarta Post’s Theresia Sufa contributed to this story from Cianjur and Adi Marsiela from Bandung.
