Quake deaths near 5,000 as UN aid arrives

The first UN flight arrived today in Indonesia’s earthquake zone carrying water, tents, stoves and cooking sets, as the death toll from the disaster climbed to nearly 5,000.

Survivors scavenged for food in the debris of their houses, and thousands of injured were still being treated in hospitals overflowing with bloodied patients.

Torrential rain that fell late yesterday added to the misery of the approximately 200,000 people displaced by Saturday’s 6.3-magnitude quake, most living in makeshift shelters constructed from plastic, canvas or even cardboard.

The death toll stood at 4,983 today, according to the Social Ministry, though officials in the affected areas put the estimate at 4,380.

Some villagers had received clothing and food, but most were still fending for themselves more than 48 hours after the quake struck, turning their homes into piles of brick, tiles and wood in less than a minute.

“All our valuables are gone,” said Hardadi, as she cooked breakfast for three families living under a shelter made from fertiliser sacks. “But at least we managed to get the children out alive.”

The aid plane, chartered by the UN’s child agency, arrived in the city of Solo, around three hours from the hardest-hit district of Bantul. It was loaded with large bags to hold water, tents, stoves and cooking sets that officials said would be distributed later today.

Yesterday, three UN trucks brought high-energy biscuits to some of the worst-hit districts and two Singapore military cargo plans arrived at Yogyakarta airport with doctors and medical supplies.

Hundreds of villagers lined main roads in the disaster zone, holding out donation boxes. They explained that any money collected would be used communally to buy rice, oil and candles.

“We need help. Anything at all,” one sign read.

Saturday’s quake was the fourth destructive temblor to hit Indonesia in the last 17 months, including the monster that spawned the December 26, 2004, Asian tsunami that killed 230,000 people, most of them in Indonesia.

The country also is battling a spiralling human bird flu case load, a spate of terror attacks by al-Qaida-linked Islamic militants and the threat of eruption from Mount Merapi, just north of the quake zone.

Many survivors worked together to clear the rubble and salvage building materials to build temporary shelters and health centres. One old lady was collecting pieces of broken glass from a path – a real health hazard given that so many survivors are without shoes.

“The people here have the spirit to rebuild their lives,” said Prapto Warsito, a village chief. “They have a long tradition of working and living together.”

In one village, women brought their children to a well inside a damaged house, and threw buckets of water over them as they stood on piece of broken table.

“All we need now is a comb,” joked one woman, who appeared in good spirits despite losing her father and home to the quake.

Electricity and water supplies are still down in much of the region, while torrential rain that has fallen at least twice since the disaster has added to misery facing survivors.

The area affected by Saturday’s quake stretches across hundreds of square kilometres (square miles) of mostly farming communities to the south of the ancient city of Yogyakarta.

Countries across Asia and the world have pledged millions of dollars, tons of supplies and hundreds of personnel – and Indonesia said late Sunday it would allocate $107m (€84) to help rebuild over the next year.

Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin. It has the largest number of volcanos in the world – 76.