Bantul, Indonesia – Tens of thousands camped out for a second night Sunday in streets, cassava fields and the paths between rice paddies in the wake of Saturday’s earthquake in Indonesia, which has killed nearly 5,000 people.
Rattled by hundreds of aftershocks, exhausted and grieving survivors scavenged for food and clothing in the brick, wood and tile rubble of their flattened houses. They pleaded for aid, which – despite worldwide pledges of tens of millions of dollars and planeloads of medicine and food – seemed to be arriving too slowly.
The first U.N. aid flight arrived today carrying water, tents, stoves and cooking sets.
Heavy rains late Sunday added to the misery of some 200,000 people left homeless by the 6.3-magnitude quake, most of them living in makeshift shelters of plastic, canvas or cardboard.
Thousands of wounded awaited treatment in hospitals overflowing with bloodied patients.
“So far, no one from the government has shown any care for us,” said villager Brojo Sukardi. “Please tell people to help us.”
The death toll stood at 4,983 today, according to the Social Ministry.
The quake on the island of Java was the fourth destructive temblor to hit Indonesia in the last 17 months, including the one that spawned the Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami that killed 230,000 people across Asia, most of them on this Indian Ocean archipelago.
The country also is coping with Islamic-militant terrorist attacks and the threat of eruption from Mount Merapi. The quake not only raised activity at the volcano but also damaged the ninth-century Prambanan temple, a U.N. world heritage site.
The disaster zone covered hundreds of square miles of mostly farming communities to the south of Yogyakarta. As many as 450 aftershocks followed. The worst devastation was in the Bantul district, which accounted for three-quarters of the deaths.
One man dug his 5-year-old daughter out of the rubble only to have her die in a hospital awaiting treatment with hundreds of others.
“Her last words were ‘Daddy, Daddy,”‘ said Poniran, who like many Indonesians uses only one name. “I have to start my life from zero again.”
