WORLD> Asia-Pacific
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WORLD> Asia-Pacific
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2nd quake shakes Indonesia after temblor kills 529
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-10-01 19:45 From Padang, Metro TV showed heavy equipment breaking through layers of cement slabs in search of students missing from a school, where they were taking after-school classes. Rescue workers said six children were pulled out alive but four others were found dead. They were placed in yellow body bags before being taken away. Another 20 children remained missing. Parents of missing students stayed up all night, waiting for signs of life.
"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. She said her 12-year-old daughter Yolanda was in the school for science lessons. "She is a good daughter and very smart. I really love her. Please, God help her," she said. In another building, rescue workers passed a plastic bottle of water through an opening in the rubble to a person trapped underneath. The quake was so powerful that it caused buildings to sway hundreds of miles (kilometers) away in Malaysia and Singapore. In Padang, children screamed as thousands of frantic residents fled in cars and motorbikes, honking horns. They feared the quake would trigger a tsunami, but no giant waves struck. The quake severed roads and cut off power and communications to Padang, and the extent of damage in surrounding areas was still unclear. Indonesia, a poor, sprawling nation, sits on a major geological fault zone and is frequently hit by earthquakes. The latest quakes were along the same fault line that spawned the 2004 Asian tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen nations. Geologists said the Indonesia quakes were not related to another deadly quake Tuesday that hit islands in the South Pacific. Padang's mayor appealed for assistance on Indonesian radio station el-Shinta. "We are overwhelmed with victims and ... lack of clean water, electricity and telecommunications," Mayor Fauzi Bahar said. "We really need help. We call on people to come to Padang to evacuate bodies and help the injured." Finance minister Sri Mulyani said the government has allocated $25 million for a two-month emergency response. She said the earthquake will seriously affect Indonesia's economic growth, because West Sumatra is a main producer of crude palm oil. "This region has been damaged seriously, including its infrastructure," Mulyani said.
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