Quake survivors search for food

Injured earthquake victims lay on the floor of an overwhelmed hospital on the outskirts of earthquake-hit Yogyakarta yesterday. The death toll from the massive earthquake that rocked Indonesia's main island of Java has risen to 4,611. PHOTO: AFP

Most of the dead were buried in village graveyards within hours of the disaster Saturday, in line with Islamic tradition. Villagers dug mass graves and village heads recorded the names of the victims so they could be added to the official death toll.

The 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck as many people were sleeping, injuring thousands in the nation's worst disaster since the 2004 tsunami. It also triggered fears that a rumbling volcano nearby would erupt.

The quake badly damaged the world famous 9th century Prambanan temple complex, where scores of stone blocks and carvings lay scattered, an archaeologist said.

The disaster zone stretched across hundreds of square miles of mostly farming communities in Yogyakarta province. The worst devastation was in the rice-farming town of Bantul, where more than 2,400 people were killed and 80 percent of the homes were flattened.

"I have to start my life from zero again," said Poniran, whose 5-year-old daughter Ellie was killed.

Poniran dug up his still-breathing daughter from the rubble of her bedroom, but she died in a hospital awaiting treatment along with hundreds of others.

"Her last words were 'Daddy, Daddy,'" he said.

Tens of thousands of people spent the night Saturday in any open space available streets, cassava fields, even the narrow paths between rice fields. Power and telephone service was out across much of the region, adding to the terror of aftershocks.

About 450 aftershocks had shaken the region as of midday Sunday, with the strongest measuring magnitude-5.2, said Handi, an official at the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency who uses only one name.

Survivors searched the ruins of their homes on Sunday for anything still usable and complained that they hadn't received any aid.

"We're short of everything clothes, food, water, all are gone. We are poor people, but our lives still matter," said Budi Wiyana, 63, whose house was destroyed.

Doctors struggled to care for the injured, hundreds of whom were lying on plastic sheets, straw mats and even newspapers outside overcrowded hospitals, some hooked to intravenous drips dangling from trees.

Bloodstains littered the floor at Yogyakarta's Dr. Sardjito Hospital, along with piles of soiled bandages and used medical supplies.

"We are short of surgeons," said Alexander, a doctor who goes by one name. "There are still so many critically injured people here."

In several villages, residents told reporters there were no people or bodies still trapped under the rubble of the houses, mostly simple brick and wood structures.

In Peni village on Bantul's outskirts, villagers set up simple clinics to treat injuries, but were hampered by shortages of medicine and equipment. A group of women cooked catfish caught in a nearby pond for dozens of people huddled under a large tent.