So You Think -You- Have Problems?

Indonesian quake toll jumps past 5,000 By CHRIS BRUMMITT, Associated Press Writer

The death toll from a 6.3-magnitude earthquake in Indonesia over the weekend rose by more than 800 Monday to 5,137, according to the government. Meanwhile, emergency aid began arriving, but officials said the supplies were not reaching survivors quickly enough.

The government's Social Affairs Ministry said the revised death toll included previously uncounted bodies buried in mass graves immediately after the quake.

The international Red Cross said it had sent a field hospital and distributed about 2,000 tents, with up to 8,000 more on the way.

The U.N. sent three trucks carrying high-energy biscuits and a plane loaded with water, tents, stoves and cooking gear.

Two Singapore military cargo planes arrived at Yogyakarta airport with doctors and medical supplies.

Japan said it would dispatch an undetermined number of land, sea and air forces to help with relief efforts.

But officials said supplies remained inadequate.

"We have received food and medicine from the government but it's not enough," said Suparno, a neighborhood official in the hardest-hit district of Bantul on Java island who goes by one name, like many Indonesians. "How can I distribute 40 kilograms (88 pounds) of rice to

1,200 people?"

Indonesia said late Sunday it would allocate $107 million to help rebuild over the next year.

The United States says it is considering allocating 'some money' in aid and the U.S. military plans to send 100 doctors, nurses and medical technicians from a base in Okinawa to Indonesia, U.S. Pacific Command spokesman Lt. Col. Bill Bigelow said Sunday.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, has released $100,000 in emergency aid but said it will need to give much more.

U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland has proposed boosting relief efforts with money from the U.N.'s $178 million central emergency relief fund.

U.N. officials in Indonesia said the most urgent needs were for generators, tents, three 100-bed field hospitals and medical supplies, mostly for treating broken limbs. Officials said they hoped to meet these requirements within three days.

France said Monday it would send medical equipment and personnel. Spain was to send 12 tons of tents, blankets and medicines and other aid, while Germany said German aid groups were moving water purification equipment and a mobile medical clinic to Java.

Britain, the European Union, China and the Japanese Red Cross Society together had given, or pledged to give, more than $14 million.

Hundreds of villagers lined main roads in the disaster zone, holding out boxes for donations to buy rice, oil and candles.

"We need help. Anything at all," one sign read.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono acknowledged a "lack of coordination" in aid distribution when he visited refugees Monday and called for government officials to be "more agile."

"I saw in many areas that there are many things that need to be speeded up," he said.

Yudhoyono -- criticized by some as being hesitant to act in the past -- spent the first night after Saturday's quake sleeping in a tent along with survivors and moved his office to the nearby city of Yogyakarta to supervise relief operations.

The government said the quake left an estimated 200,000 people homeless, most of whom now are living in shacks close to their former homes or in shelters erected in rice fields. Hospitals overflowed with bloodied survivors.

The area affected by the quake stretches across hundreds of square miles of mostly farming communities to the south of the ancient city of Yogyakarta.

The quake has intensified activity at the nearby Mount Merapi volcano, which spit out lava and hot clouds Monday, sending debris avalanching

2 1/2 miles down the mountain, said Subandriyo, chief of the Merapi volcanology and monitoring office.

No one was injured because the debris tumbled down unpopulated sections of the peak.

Some villagers had received clothing and food, but most were still fending for themselves more than 48 hours after the quake struck.

"All our valuables are gone," said Hardadi, as she cooked breakfast for three families living under a shelter made from fertilizer sacks. "But at least we managed to get the children out alive."

Many survivors worked together to clear the rubble and salvage building materials to build temporary shelters and health centers.

"The people here have the spirit to rebuild their lives," said Prapto Warsito, a village chief. "They have a long tradition of working and living together."

Electricity and water supplies were still down in much of the region on Monday. Telecommunications were totally out, and torrential rains have fallen at least twice since the disaster, adding to the misery of survivors. The only working telecommunications noted by this reporter were two young men who had installed and were maintaining a ham radio station in a hastily erected tent, powered by a gasoline generator nearby, along with the airplane they had used to reach the area. I used their radio gear to file this report with the Associated Press.

The quake 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 battling the bird flu crisis, terrorist attacks by al-Qaida-linked Islamic militants and the threat of eruption from Mount Merapi, just north of the quake zone.

Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin. It has 76 volcanos, the largest number in the world.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press.

NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at

formatting link
. Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at
formatting link
(or)
formatting link
For more news and headlines of interest from Associated Press, please go to:
formatting link
(also)
formatting link
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Throughout 2005 and 2006 the gentle folk of the south Pacific area have had more problems than many of us have seen in our lifetimes. It is really very sad. PAT]

Reply to
Chris Brummitt
Loading thread data ...

Cabling-Design.com Forums website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.