Indonesia: Earthquake survivors appeal for supplies as rain hampers rescue

Two days after the quake flattened their homes, residents were still trying to retrieve priceless belongings including family photos, religious books and marriage certificates.

Local youths navigate their way through the rubble at a village affected by Monday's earthquake, in Cianjur, West Java, Indonesia,Nov. 23, 2022. (Photo | AP)

CIANJUR, INDONESIA: Survivors of an Indonesian earthquake that killed at least 268 people appealed for food and water Wednesday, as heavy rain and aftershocks hampered rescue efforts among the rubble of devastated villages.

The calls for help came as authorities warned that debris from landslides caused by the strong quake near the town of Cianjur in West Java needed to be cleared as rains forecast for the coming weeks threatened a second disaster.

Two days after the quake flattened their homes, residents were still trying to retrieve priceless belongings including family photos, religious books and marriage certificates.

"Although some supplies have arrived, it is not enough. We got rice, instant noodles, mineral water but it's not enough," Mustafa, a 23-year-old resident of Gasol village, told AFP.

Mustafa had just dug through the rubble of an elderly neighbour's house at her request, appearing from the destroyed facade carrying a pile of clothes before returning to collect rice, a gas stove, canisters and frying pans.

In Talaga village, some residents put signs on the windows of damaged houses and the front of tents that read "We need help!" In the streets, at least three people held up cardboard boxes, asking for donations.

Rescuers navigate through a road badly damaged during Monday's earthquake, in Cianjur, West Java, Indonesia, Nov. 23, 2022. (Photo | AP)

A shallow 3.9-magnitude aftershock sent panicked evacuees running from shelters on Wednesday, according to an AFP reporter at the scene.

More than 58,000 people have been displaced by the quake, around 1,000 are injured and 151 are missing, with more than half of the dead still to be identified, the national disaster mitigation agency (BNPB) said Tuesday.

The government has dispatched tents and other supplies to Cianjur for the displaced, and the military deployed 12,000 personnel on Wednesday, officials said. Heavy rain was hampering those efforts in about a dozen villages where more than 22,000 houses had been destroyed.

"For the refugees... their basic life necessities must be guaranteed, water, food, that's non-negotiable," BNPB chief Suharyanto, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, told a press conference Wednesday.

Two villages remain isolated, said Henri Alfiandi, head of Indonesia's search and rescue authority Basarnas, in a video posted to social media.

He said he had reports of trapped villagers without food and water, and some forced to sleep alongside dead bodies. "The people there can't even ask for help," he said, adding three helicopters were being sent to drop aid.
EXPLAINER | Why was Indonesia's shallow 5.6 magnitude earthquake so deadly?

'Lacking food and medicine'

People who were injured in Monday's earthquake are being treated in a makeshift tent erected at the parking lot of the local hospital in Cianjur, Nov. 22, 2022. (Photo | AP)

But another resident appealed to Jakarta to send more supplies. "My child has a fever and she can't eat. There are many children and old people here. Children need milk, diapers, food and medicine," said 30-year-old Yunisa Yuliani.

Dede Masliyah, a 45-year-old evacuee living in a makeshift tent, said the survivors had yet to receive aid and were battered by rains overnight. "We are lacking food and medicines. We desperately need a proper tent because there are many children and small babies here," she said.

Indonesia is vulnerable to landslides and flash floods in the rainy season, which has already begun and peaks in December in West Java. The country's meteorology agency warned the town is prone to another catastrophe just days after homes were destroyed and loved ones buried by rubble.

"We have to be vigilant over a potential second disaster, such as a landslide," Dwikorita Karnawati, head of the meteorology, climatology and geophysics agency told a press conference Tuesday.

Karnawati said rivers could be blocked by landslides or rubble and spark a flash flood in Cianjur. "We urgently need to clear materials and rubbles that block river flows in the upper hills," she said.

Deadliest quake since 2018

Rescuers dig through the mud as they search for victims of an earthquake-triggered landslide in Cianjur, Nov. 23, 2022. (Photo | AP)

On Tuesday, Cianjur's residents began mourning loved ones, laying them to rest in accordance with their Islamic faith after authorities released them from morgues.

But for one couple, there was a glimmer of hope. Mimin, 52, and her husband Rosyid, 67, scrabbled through their destroyed home looking for one item only -- a treasured two-gram gold ring.

They pulled clothes from the concrete, patting and shaking them until the gleaming piece of jewellery that represented their savings popped out. "Praise God! I found the ring!" Mimin yelled.

Indonesia experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", where tectonic plates collide.

Monday's tremor was the deadliest in the archipelago nation since a 2018 quake and the resulting tsunami killed more than 4,000 people on the island of Sulawesi.