he death toll of the powerful magnitude 5.9 earthquake that in the morning of May 27th 2006, at around 5:53 struck, the island of Java may be of up several hundreds – Red Cross sources speak of over 400. The quake was felt in the university city of Yogyakarta with
epicenter at sea. Based on first reports, the hospital of Yogyakarta, a tourist area due to the world’s largest Buddhist temple of Borobudur, is assisting dozens of wounded, for the most part from the town of Bantul 50km more to the south.
A 6.8 magnitude quake already on May 16 struck near the island of Nias, off Sumatra, while a few hours earlier another tremor was felt off the islands of Karmadec, northeast of New Zealand. On May 13 fear of a resumption of activity on the Merapi volcano, which stands over Yogyakarta, had forced authorities to order the evacuation of 30,000 inhabitants, many of which had refused to leave.
“It was about 5:55am, I had just looked at my watch before leaving my room for morning prayers, when the powerful quake began”, explained to MISNA Father Vinio Dante Corda, an Italian Xaverian missionary, in Indonesia for 43 years, in defining the first moments of the earthquake that struck the south-west of Java, the largest island of the Indonesian archipelago.
It is not difficult to imagine the consequences that the quake must have had on the poorer homes that in these years have multiplied throughout the
city.
Fr. Vinio Dante Corda
“I couldn’t stay on my feet... The quake was undulatory and lasted more than a minute”, added the missionary, who lives in the northern outskirts of the university city of Yogyakarta, not far from the Merapi volcano, which recently returned in activity. “The area we live in is for the most part formed by fairly solid small one story houses, and there were therefore contained damages, a few fallen tiles injured some. But it is not difficult to imagine the consequences that the quake must have had on the poorer homes that in these years have multiplied throughout the city”, continued Fr. Corda.
The local radios and TV continue giving a toll of around 100 dead and a thousand wounded, while the international press is instead giving much higher figures of between 1,300-1,600 dead, citing unspecified government officials. “Based on the information we have received, some areas were extremely hard hit, it appears that along the road to the airport a hotel literally disappeared and the actual Yogyakarta airport also suffered serious damages, to the extent that all flights were suspended”, concluded Fr. Corda.
“We are in a complete emergency, bodies and wounded with deep lacerations and broken bones continue arriving, but we do not have enough place for all of them in our structure that is however the largest of Yogyakarta. We are setting them up outside, in the clearing in front of the hospital, but we are already facing a shortage of water and medicine, and we need immediate aid”, stated to MISNA sources of the secretariat of the Bethesda Hospital of Yogyakarta, where an earthquake, estimated at magnitude 6 on the Richter scale, claimed some 2,000 victims and at least the same number of wounded, based on latest reports by the Indonesian press, though the toll is expected to rise further.
The worst hit zone of the city appears to be the southwestern sector. “We know that the first tremor was followed a few minutes later by the eruption of ash and stones from the Merapi volcano that towers over Yogyakarta. For weeks we have been on an eruption alert. Even now we can feel jolts, though weaker, that continue causing panic among the people”, continued the same sources.
The earthquake destroyed hundreds of buildings, including local government offices and cut power in different zones of the city. It is still very difficult to reach the rural areas to aid the affected populations.
“We have no more beds available at the hospital and we are forced to leave people in the corridors. All the medical personnel are working incessantly in a situation of total emergency. Even the morgues are filled and there is no place for bodies that are wrapped in sheets and lined up along the streets”, refers to MISNA a doctor contacted at the Bethesda Hospital in Yogyakarta, the largest of the city.
As feared, the toll continues to rise, with the latest official estimates indicating 2,276 dead in the earthquake that this morning struck the south-western part of the island of Java, but the number of victims appears destined to escalate due to the hundreds of wounded that continue arriving in the medical
centers of Yogyakarta. “Since early this morning some 700 wounded have arrived, though 120 died from the severe traumas suffered in the collapse of their homes. We are in urgent need of mattresses, blankets and disinfectants”, adds the doctor, whose voice is hardly audible due to a bad phone connection, suspended in many parts of the city like also the electric power.
The fear of a new tsunami, though immediately excluded by experts, caused many residents to flee for shelter in higher areas. Also the mosques and churches are filled with wounded and displaced. Hundreds of people are currently hosted at the parish of Marghaningsih, where they will probably stay the night from fear of new tremors.
(From MISNA)