Indonesia quake death toll increases to more than 6,200

Regions previously not reached by relief teams in remote areas of Indonesia’s quake zone reported hundreds of additional deaths, pushing the death toll from last weekend’s disaster to more than 6,200, officials said today.

Though international relief workers have poured into the quake area, many villagers complained they were not getting the help they needed. Some searched for scraps of tin and other materials to rebuild crumbled homes, while others blocked traffic to beg for money.

“We are forced to do this because the only aid we’ve received is a bit of food and some cooking oil,” said Ribut Setyo Pambudi, 17, after stopping a bus. “We don’t have any money to rebuild, to buy gasoline or even to go out to try to find work.”

Others placed flower pots and trash cans on nearby roads to slow traffic and beg for donations.

The death toll from Saturday’s 6.3-magnitude quake on Java island rose to 6,234 after officials reported 388 more bodies in remote corners of Bantul, said Andi Hanindito, an official at the Social Affairs Ministry.

“We are getting information from areas that were previously inaccessible,” he said, adding that phone lines had been restored and damaged roads and bridges repaired.

The quake that struck soon after dawn on Saturday reduced more than 135,000 houses into piles of bricks, tiles and wood in less than a minute, displacing some 647,000 people, said Bambang Priyohadi, a provincial official.

Nearly a third of them now live under plastic sheets close to their former homes, in rice fields or on roadsides, while the rest are staying with relatives, he said. Their misery has been compounded by days of intermittent rain and blazing sun.

The United Nations said the crisis appeared to be easing with the arrival of aid workers and assistance from more than 20 countries, even as hospitals continued to struggle to find beds for the tens of thousands of injured.

“Overall, it (the relief operation) is moving reasonably well, but there are a number of choke points” in the distribution of aid said Charlie Higgins, in charge of the UN relief effort.

The UN World Food Programme said €4m was needed over the next few months to pay for emergency rations of enriched noodles and high energy biscuits.

The main hospital in Bantul remained overwhelmed, with patients cramming corridors or sleeping on pieces of cardboard in the parking lot, and doctors complained of a lack of supplies.

“There is an acute shortage of gypsum so we can’t make plaster casts anymore, which means all new patients who come in have to wait,” said Dr. Hidayat, in charge of emergency relief at the hospital.

Indonesia’s president, who moved his ffice immediately after the quake to the nearby city of Yogyakarta, said he had enough confidence in the relief efforts to return to the capital, Jakarta.

“Certainly, a lot more needs to be done,’ Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said today. But he said roads had been cleared, the main airport’s runway repaired and reopened, and electricity restored in some areas.