PADANG, Indonesia (AP) - Across this coastal provincial capital, hardest hit by the latest earthquake to devastate Indonesia, mourners, survivors and rescue workers alike clawed through heaps of concrete in searches for thousands still missing.
Some, like Malina, had already realized the worst. She was just looking for the shoes missing from her dead daughter's body, found in the rubble of a four-story school that was flattened within seconds. Like many Indonesians, she goes by one name.
As the death toll climbed Thursday - to 1,100 by one U.N. estimate - others looked for survivors, with thousands of people missing and feared trapped in the wreckage of shattered buildings.
When search efforts were suspended for the night, an eerie quiet fell over the city of 900,000.
"Let's not underestimate. Let's be prepared for the worst," President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in the capital, Jakarta.
Wednesday's 7.6-magnitude earthquake started at sea and quickly rippled through Sumatra, the westernmost island in the Indonesian archipelago.
Government figures put the number of dead at 777, with nearly 2,100 people seriously injured. John Holmes, the U.N.'s humanitarian chief, set the death toll at 1,100, and the number was expected to grow.
President Barack Obama, who spent part of his childhood in Indonesia, pledged to support earthquake recovery efforts there. The United States pledged $3 million in immediate assistance.
Most of the confirmed deaths in Indonesia were reported in Padang, where more than 500 buildings were severely damaged or flattened.
Comments
Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.
Sign in to comment