‘I saw the road move up and down like a wave’

PADANG’S inhabitants are well aware of the dangers of living on top of one of the world’s most active fault lines, but the huge earthquake that struck their port city still took most by surprise as it wreaked devastation and death.

“This quake was much stronger than any I had ever felt before,” said local resident Anas Taylor, 54.

“I saw the road move up and down like a wave. The ground was not just shaking but actually jumping up and down. It’s by far the worst I’ve ever seen,” he said.

Officials estimate that thousands are trapped under rubble and possibly dead after hundreds of houses and multi-storey buildings collapsed from the 7.6 magnitude quake, which struck on Wednesday and was followed by aftershocks.

Padang, these days a minor port city, is circled by hills. Its residents fled to higher ground and open spaces in panic when the quake struck, and many chose to sleep out in the open despite heavy rain rather than risk returning indoors.

Arriving at Padang airport from Jakarta, this reporter encountered scenes of chaos.

Hundreds of people had placed prayer mats on the ground outside the airport to sleep in the open, shops had run out of water, and desperate residents scrambled for seats on planes to flee the devastation.

Few cars or taxis were willing to drive into the city centre. Petrol had run out at many stations or else could not be pumped because the power was down.

“It’s getting nasty in town. It’s chaos. There’s no fuel, people are looting. It’s getting worse because people have no food, no money. There’s thousands trying to leave town, the roads are blocked,” said American Greg Hunt, 38.

“I have been through quakes here before and this was the worst. There is blood everywhere, people with their limbs cut off. We saw buildings collapsed, people dying. We saw a lady half buried under cement. She was trying to leave a building and as she left, the building fell down and took her leg off.”

A German tourist, Patrick Werner, 28, said he had been down at the beach when the quake struck.

“The sand began shaking on the ground and then it moved like a wave of thick water. We saw some cracks emerge in the soil and water come out of the ground like it was in Universal Studios,” he said.

“We grabbed our passports and some money and ran up to the street. We saw power poles knocked over and houses tilted over, with their tiles smashed.”

In Padang, many of the houses were reduced to rubble. In others, walls and roofs had collapsed, leaving just the furniture standing.

Nasaruddin, 45, a father-of-four, said he had lost his house and was camping out in a 1m by 3m tent made from some poles, a tarp and a piece of rusty corrugated iron.

“I share this with three other families. We are waiting for aid from the government, food, water and materials to fix our house, especially cement and sand,” he said.

Collapsed or seriously damaged buildings in Padang included hospitals, mosques, a school and a mall.

TVOne network footage showed heavy equipment breaking through layers of cement in search of more than 30 students it said were missing from the school where they were taking after-school classes.

Parents of missing students stayed up all night, waiting for signs of life under the rubble.

“My daughter’s face keeps appearing in my eyes ... my mind. I cannot sleep, I’m waiting here to see her again,” a woman, who identified herself only as Imelda, told TVOne, tears rolling down her face.