CNS STORY: CRS sends supplies to Indonesian island; death toll expected to rise

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CNS Story:

INDONESIA-QUAKE Mar-29-2005 (590 words) With photos. xxxi

CRS sends supplies to Indonesian island; death toll expected to rise

By Stephen Steele
Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Catholic Relief Services and other aid agencies sent medical and relief supplies to Indonesia's Nias island after an earthquake of magnitude 8.7 hammered a region still recovering from December's earthquake and tsunamis.

At least 330 bodies had been recovered from the March 28 quake on Nias island and its neighbor, Simeulue; government and aid officials said the number could climb to more than 1,000.

Among those injured was Capuchin Father Barnabas Winkler, administrator of the Sibolga Diocese, who was seriously hurt when the building he was sleeping in collapsed, said Jonathan Evans, CRS country representative for Indonesia. Unconfirmed reports said Father Winkler was evacuated off the island for medical treatment.

CRS leased a 400-ton ship to carry medical supplies, food and other emergency items from Banda Aceh, Indonesia, to Nias, the agency said.

"We and other agencies are putting everything we have on the boat," Pat Johns, CRS director for emergency services, said in a statement.

"There are a lot of people out on the streets who are hurt, have lost their homes and have no access to food and water," he said.

Jarkas, the relief agency of Indonesia's Medan Archdiocese, dispatched an emergency team to Nias by helicopter March 29, but the group had not reported back to church personnel, said Wendeved Rakam, a field officer for the Franciscans' Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation.

"There is very limited communication with Nias right now. They are there, but we have not heard back from them," Rakam told Catholic News Service.

Nias suffered minor damage from the Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunamis that killed at least 174,000 people in 11 countries; about 120 people were killed on the island, according to church figures from that disaster. But the island, known mostly as surfer's paradise, suffered the brunt of the latest earthquake, which occurred about 75 miles off its north coast.

At least 30 percent of the buildings in Gunung Sitoli, the island's biggest city, were destroyed, according to The Associated Press, although other news agencies reported more damage. Significant damage also was reported in the island's second-biggest town, Teluk Dalam.

Budi Atmaji Adiputro, a spokesman for Indonesia's Coordinating Agency for National Disaster Relief, said rescuers found 330 bodies in the rubble. The toll was expected to rise as more bodies were believed to be trapped in collapsed buildings, he said in a statement.

The quake damaged Gunung Sitoli's airstrip and prevented all but small planes from landing. Most aid was being ferried in, aid officials said.

The majority of Nias' 600,000 population is Christian, with about 30 percent being Catholic. The church coordinated the recovery effort from the December earthquake and tsunamis, a fact that allowed CRS to mobilize quickly in March, Cecile Sorra, CRS communications associate, told CNS.

"We were able to receive reports from partners and networks there almost immediately, which allowed us to amass supplies pretty quickly," she said.

CRS President Ken Hackett, who was in Indonesia touring CRS projects in Banda Aceh and Meulaboh, met March 29 with Coadjutor Archbishop Anicetus Sinaga of Medan to discuss ways CRS could respond to Nias.

Hackett, who was forced to evacuate his hotel due to the earthquake, said the "level of anxiety in the region was pretty high."

"Since Dec. 26, there has been a series of tremors and aftershocks, with each one sending fear through the people," he told CNS. "This is very unstable psychological situation; there's a lot of depression, a lot of fear."

END

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