Heavy monsoons in Indonesia disrupt rescue efforts following a 5.6-magnitude earthquake

CIANJUR, Indonesia (AP) — Researchers in Indonesia on Wednesday rescued a 6-year-old boy who had been trapped for two days under the rubble of his home, which collapsed in an earthquake that killed at least 271 people, with heavy monsoon rains. Survivors are in temporary shelters and forced to suspend rescue efforts.

The death toll is likely to rise as many people are still missing, some devastated remote areas remain inaccessible, and more than 2,000 people were injured in the 5.6-magnitude earthquake on Monday. Hospitals near the epicenter on the densely populated island of Java were already overwhelmed, with patients hooked up with intravenous drips lying on stretchers and cots in tents set up outside awaiting further treatment.

It was the deadliest earthquake in Indonesia since the 2018 earthquake and tsunami in Sulawesi that killed about 4,340 people.

Read more: This is why the Indonesia earthquake was so deadly

Rizwan Kamel, governor of West Java, said many of the dead in this week’s earthquake were public school students who had finished their lessons for the day and were taking additional lessons in Islamic schools when the buildings collapsed.

Suharyanto, the head of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, said more than 12,000 troops were deployed on Wednesday to bolster search efforts by the police, search and rescue agency and volunteers.

Suharyanto, who like many Indonesians uses one name, said aid is reaching thousands of homeless people who have fled to temporary shelters, where supplies are hauled in on foot over rugged terrain.

He said rescuers recovered three more bodies on Wednesday and rescued a 6-year-old boy who was found alive next to his dead grandmother’s body under the rubble of his home.

Police, soldiers and other rescue personnel used jackhammers, circular saws, farm tools and their bare hands to desperately dig in the hardest-hit area of ​​Jegendael village, where a landslide left tons of mud, rocks and trees behind.

The government seems focused on finding the bodies and, where possible, the survivors. Authorities struggled to bring tractors and other heavy equipment over washed-out roads to villages hit by landslides.

However, residents complained that the government was too slow.

Muhammed Tahir, 48, was sitting in his living room with his family in Cijendil when disaster struck. He and his family managed to escape, but his sister and her two children were destroyed by a landslide a few kilometers (miles) from his home.

“When I came to my sister’s house, I was shocked by what I saw,” said Taher. Landslides destroyed dozens of homes. … It looked like a doomsday.” At least 45 people were buried alive under tons of mud, he said.

Tohir and other residents searched for the missing people with farming tools and managed to recover two bodies. Two days later, rescuers arrived to assist in the search.

“The government has been very slow to respond to this disaster,” Thohir said.

He said he wouldn’t give up until they could dig his sister and nieces out of the mud.

In many hard-hit areas, water, food and medical supplies have been distributed from trucks, and the authorities have deployed military personnel carrying food, medicine, blankets and field tents.

Volunteers and rescuers set up temporary shelters for those left homeless in several villages in Cianjur district.

Nearly 6,000 police, soldiers and volunteers dug through the rubble with bare hands, shovels and picks as their efforts were hampered by heavy rain.

Arif Yulianto, the search and rescue coordinator, said they were forced to halt their efforts on Wednesday afternoon because the rains made the landslide areas unstable. He said the search would resume early Thursday.

Suharyanto said 2,043 people were injured, including more than 600 who were still receiving treatment for serious injuries, and that nearly 62,000 survivors had been taken to shelters.

Most of them sought protection under makeshift shelters battered by the torrential rains. Only a few were fortunate enough to be protected by tarpaulin-covered tents. They said they were running out of food, blankets, and other aid, as emergency supplies were rushed to the area.

Suharyanto told a news conference that about 40 people were still missing. Rescue operations have focused on around a dozen villages in Cianjur where people are believed to be trapped.

He said more than 56,230 homes in Cianjur were damaged and more than 170 public buildings destroyed, including 31 schools.

Suharyanto said about 100 of the 271 confirmed deaths were children.

“We are saddened by this earthquake, especially as children have been disproportionately affected,” said Jacobus Rontoin of Wahana Visi Indonesia, a Christian humanitarian group concerned with child welfare.

Monday’s 5.6-magnitude earthquake is not expected to cause major damage. But the area is densely populated, and experts said the shallowness of the quake and lack of earthquake-proof infrastructure contributed to the damage.

More than 2.5 million people live in the mountainous rural area of ​​Cianjur, including about 175,000 in its main town, of the same name.

President Joko Widodo visited Cianjur on Tuesday and pledged to rebuild its infrastructure and provide assistance of up to 50 million rupees ($3,180) for each resident whose house was damaged.

The country of more than 270 million people is frequently hit by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis due to its location on the arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific basin known as the “Ring of Fire”.

A powerful earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean in 2004 killed 230,000 people in more than a dozen countries, most of them in Indonesia.

Associated Press writers Ninik Karmini and Edna Tarijan in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.

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