Disasters

A 3rd strong earthquake shakes Indonesia’s Lombok, with the death toll rising to 319

Most displaced people sleep in tents or tarps near ruined homes or in evacuation shelters that lack food, clean water and medical assistance. A makeshift medical facility was established for the injured.

Hundreds of aftershocks also rocked survivors of the quake, including a shallow 5.9-magnitude quake on Thursday that sent people screaming and running from evacuation shelters.

Foreigners help an Indonesian woman on the island of Gili Trawangan after the earthquake. Photo: EPA

Motorcycles parked on a street within the Tanjung district in northern Lombok overturned and the partitions of some nearby buildings collapsed.

“While helping, we were stuck in traffic, suddenly we felt as if our automobile had been hit from behind, it was so strong,” said witness Sri Laksmi. “People on the road panicked, got out of their cars and ran in numerous directions in the midst of the traffic.”

Nugroho said twenty-four people were injured by falling debris in the course of the tremors.

The moment a person is pulled alive from the rubble in earthquake-stricken Lombok

Authorities and international aid groups began organizing aid, but severely damaged roads slowed efforts to succeed in survivors within the mountainous northern a part of Lombok, which bore the brunt of the earthquake.

Officials say aid began arriving in essentially the most isolated regions at noon Thursday, but many displaced people still lack basic foodstuffs.

In some parts of northern Lombok, survivors could be seen standing on the road with boxes, asking for donations and food.

“It is already clear that Sunday’s earthquake was extremely devastating,” Christopher Rassi, head of the Red Cross assessment team in Lombok, said in a press release. “I visited villages yesterday that were completely collapsed.”

Workers use heavy equipment to look through the rubble of homes, schools and mosques in hopes of finding fading survivors.

There are fears that two collapsed mosques in northern Lombok were filled with worshippers.

Rescuers found three bodies and managed to tug one man alive from the twisted wreckage of a mosque within the village of Lading Lading, and at the very least one body was spotted under rubble in Pemenang.

Authorities are gathering information from members of the family of missing relatives to find out what number of more people could have been within the buildings once they collapsed, said Yusuf Latif, spokesman for the country’s search and rescue agency.

An aerial view of among the damage in Lombok. Photo: Xinhua

On much of the island, a well-liked tourist destination, once bustling villages have become virtual ghost towns.

Evacuees in some camps say they’re running out of food, while in others they’re suffering psychological trauma from the powerful quake, which got here just per week after one other quake ripped through the island and killed 17 people.

Government officials said medical staff and “long-term assistance”, especially food and medicine, were urgently needed within the hardest-hit areas.

We were stuck in traffic while helping, suddenly it felt like someone hit our automobile from behind, it was so strong

Sri Lakshmi

On Thursday morning, about 200 cars crammed with food, medicine and basic supplies were sent to the hardest-hit regions within the north and west, said Agung Pramuja, a spokesman for disaster relief agency Mataram.

However, some evacuees complained that they were ignored or experienced long delays within the delivery of supplies to shelters.

At a shelter in hard-hit Kayangan, recent mother Rusnah, who like many Indonesians uses one name, said she needed basic supplies for her children.

“I still feel pain from giving birth,” she said. “I need diapers, I need milk.”

Other evacuees said they subsisted on a weight-reduction plan of fast noodles and needed clean water and bedding.

The Indonesian Red Cross said it had arrange 10 mobile clinics within the north of the island.

A field hospital has also been established near the evacuation center within the village of Tanjung, housing over 500 people.

Kurniawan Eko Wibowo, a physician at the sphere hospital, said many of the patients had broken bones and head injuries.

“We lack the infrastructure to perform operations because [they] they must be performed in a sterile place,” Wibowo said.

Aid groups say children are particularly vulnerable, with many sleeping in open fields and affected by diseases resulting from lack of warm clothing and blankets.

This article appeared within the print edition of the South China Morning Post as: more woe for Lombok because the tremors proceed

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