SIBOLGA, Indonesia, March 30 -- Survivors and relief workers dug through wreckage Wednesday on a remote Indian Ocean island in an attempt to rescue people trapped in buildings flattened by a major undersea quake.
A United Nations official estimated that at least 500 people were killed and at least 2,000 were injured from Monday's 8.7 magnitude quake, which struck in the seabed off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
Haogombowo sits with the body of his wife at a makeshift morgue on Indonesia's Nias Island, where Monday's earthquake killed hundreds.
(Suzanne Plunkett -- AP)
|
_____Earthquake Coverage_____
•
Photo Gallery: Rescue workers searched for survivors after a massive earthquake toppled buildings and destroyed homes in Indonesia.
|
| |
|
The region was also hit with a 6.3 magnitude aftershock on Wednesday, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries from that quake.
Witnesses and aid workers on Nias Island said many people in the seaside city of Gunungsitoli were buried in rubble, and fears rose that the death toll from Monday's quake would climb. Basing their estimates on structural damage, officials said the number could reach several thousand.
Television footage shot from the air revealed widespread devastation on Nias, and fires could be seen burning. The island, a popular surfing destination, has a population of about 600,000 and is situated 45 miles from the epicenter of Monday's quake and 75 miles off the western coast of Sumatra, the major northern island of the Indonesian archipelago. Sumatra suffered major damage and loss of life from a stronger undersea quake on Dec. 26.
A damaged runway in Nias prevented airplanes from landing, but some international relief workers reached the island Tuesday by helicopter and reported dire conditions.
"Our estimate is that 20,000 people risk having no access to water," said Jeremie Delage, tsunami relief director for Oxfam International, speaking by cell phone from Gunungsitoli. "It is a bit chaotic. Obviously a lot of people died in the event. There are a lot of people injured; people are trying to rescue others trapped in their houses."
The United Nations has sent assessment teams to Nias that so far have surveyed four of six damaged areas. U.N. spokeswoman Imogen Wall said, "The medical need is pretty intense." Throughout the day, helicopters ferried the injured from Nias to the mainland, where ambulances took them to hospitals.
An Indonesian warship was en route to Nias Wednesday with water, fuel, rice, noodles and at least 200 anxious family members in search of relatives.
The U.S. charity, Catholic Relief Services, redirected one ship to Nias from relief efforts in Banda Aceh to the north.
The World Food Program is shipping 300 tons of food to Nias, said Wall. In a telephone interview from Banda Aceh, she said medical supplies and water purification equipment were top priorities.
Monday's disaster was nowhere near the scale December quake, which spawned a tsunami in the Indian Ocean that killed an estimated 280,000 people in 11 countries. Although warnings were issued, including a first-ever alert issued to 11 countries in the region by Japan's Meteorological Agency, Monday's quake did not generate tsunamis.
Indonesia's Metro TV reported that there were indications of destruction on neighboring islands. About 100 people died on the smaller island of Simeulue, Metro TV said, quoting an unidentified official there.
Dave Jenkins, a New Zealand physician who runs the relief agency, SurfAid International, said there had been no contact with the Banyak Islands, home to about 10,000 people. The islands are located close to the quake's epicenter.
