6000+ killed in Java earthquake
Published: 01 April, 2006
As the US hurricane season inches ever closer, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is busy preparing for the disaster that must inevitably hit America’s Gulf Coast.
Response resources and assets are currently being staged and both national and local emergency personnel have been training for what has been predicted as ‘a very active season ahead’. Should a major disaster hit the US, FEMA’s team at Logistics Fort Worth will be galvanised into action.
The centre is part of FEMA’s rapid response system designed to ship water, ice, food, blankets, generators and other essential supplies and equipment needed in the first few days of disaster response. Emergency rescue agencies have publicly voiced concerns that New Orleans is not fully ready to face another flood - and that ‘cut-price’ repair work on the city’s defences has been inadequate. Louisiana officials recently conducted an emergency response exercise based on a fictional ‘Hurricane Alicia’. The ‘worst-case’ projections from this operation indicate that the city’s levee system would be completely overwhelmed if another Katrina-strength storm hits. Deputy director of Louisiana State University’s Hurricane Center, Ivor van Heerden warns:”There are so many sections of the levee that are weakened. Some of the repairs haven’t been covered with the required protection to stop them eroding, so as much as they have been rebuilt, they will erode again if we get another big storm. A slow-moving category three or more storm would totally flood the whole of New Orleans. In essence we are left with the Cajun Atlantis.” Republican Congressman, Bobby Jindal has also warned about dire consequences ahead: “We are talking about billions of dollars of construction and we’re talking about protecting tens of thousands of lives. There has got to be improvement in emergency response before another hurricane hits our coast.”
6,000+ killed in Java earthquake: More than 6,200 people were killed in the 6.3 magnitude earthquake which hit the island of Java on May 27th, 2006, Indonesian authorities say. At least 30,000 people have been injured and more than 105,000 homes destroyed or damaged, leaving hundreds of thousands of people displaced.
“Most of the hospitals are functioning, but are overloaded. There is a lack of space in the hospitals,” commented Charlie Higgins, the UN’s humanitarian co-ordinator in Yogyakarta, told FIRE & RESCUE. “It’s getting out the basic medical supplies to the hospitals that is important,” he said. More than 470 aftershocks have terrified residents already afraid to return home.
Adding to the problems, Mount Merapi - a volcano north of the quake’s epicentre - continued to simmer after weeks of seismic activity that saw 20,000 people evacuated from their homes amid a major eruption alert. “These aftershocks made rescue extrication via tunnelling quite impossible,” one international rescue expert told FIRE & RESCUE.
“Rain has also impeded progress reaching those trapped under shattered homes and timbers. Because of the time which has elapsed this is now a body-recovery operation. In most places, even this isn’t taking
place. People are buried where they fell. This is all about aid, medical teams and support operations right now.”
A month on from the disaster and Java’s main airport is now open, but only for aid flights. Military helicopters and a Hercules cargo plane have been flying a series of rescue missions. Rescuers fromthe Singaporean and Malaysian military have been assisting the Indonesians in clearing away the rubble of wrecked buildings but rescue efforts have been largely chaotic, with some complaining that Indonesian authorities were not moving fast enough. The 43-member ‘Operation Lion Heart’ contingent from the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) are amongst those conducting search-andrescue. The team is made up of Disaster, Assistance and Rescue Team (DART) rescuers as well as a medical team comprising one medical officer and two paramedics. Following a joint survey and assessment with the Indonesian Army representatives, the contingent set up its Operation Base at an open field at Tangongan, Pleret in Bantul, the district south of Yogyakarta.
The SCDF, says the contingent, led by LTC Anwar Abdullah, will continue to work closely with local authorities in the search-and-rescue operations, humanitarian assistance and relief efforts.
Meanwhile the 35-men SAF medical team works on two shifts at the TNI (Indonesian armed forces) field hospital in Pleret to provide 24-hour primary health care and emergency medical services to the quake victims.
Large NGOs have been establishing their own field operations alongside international aid agencies and the military. The dead are being buried in cloth wrapping because there simply aren’t enough coffins. Reconstructing the region will take many months.
Tidal surge left by the hurricane months, with thousands of houses destroyed and on the Gulf Coast. [pic: FEMA] almost every building damaged, especially amongst the 105,000 homes over a tract spreading from the Javanese coast inland along the Opak River. Within a day of the quake Australian rescuers and medics established an autonomous operating theatre with more than 12 tonnes of medical equipment. A triage centre has been set up at a partially built indoor football stadium at a local university, which has been taken over by Indonesian Navy medics and is being used to take an overflow of patients from local hospitals. Several foreign governments have pledged money to help the relief effort; the Asian Development Bank has promised $60m (£32m) in aid and loans to help the affected region.
Volcano threatens Comoros:
COMOROS - June 1st, 2006: A volcano spewing lava on the Indian Ocean island of Grande Comore has stabilised and poses no immediate threat, but may explode at a later date, experts say. This is good news for the 300,000 people living near Mount Karthla on the Comoros archipelago’s biggest island. Geologist Hamidou Nassor feels the lava is contained for now. “We found a lake of lava in the crater that is being fed by a central fountain,” he comments.
“The crater does not appear to have any cracks. No overflow of lava has been detected, nor is one expected for the moment.”
Poisonous gases seeping from cracks in the crater killed 17 people in 1903, in the volcano’s biggest death toll on record. Karthala last erupted in April 2005, forcing thousands to flee in fear of noxious fumes and lava flow, in its first eruption in over a decade.
International news in brief
INDIA - May 30th, 2006: Two employees of the Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers Limited (RCF) were burned to death following an explosion that took place at the company's plant, say Mumbai firefighters. The men were killed in the explosion at the melt pipeline of ammonium nitrate phosphate (ANP) plant located in the central Mumbai suburb of Chembur, the fire was brought under control shortly after four fire engines, two water tankers and an ambulance attended. USA - June 1st, 2006: A tractor-trailer crashed on a freeway near Houston, TX, and dumped 40 tons of gravel on a woman's car. Officials said she survived after bystanders helped fire-rescue crews dig her out using hubcaps and any other tools they could find. It took about 40 minutes to free her after the trailer overturned and dumped the gravel on her car on Interstate 10 near the city's downtown, Assistant Fire Chief Rick Flanagan said. "This was a very scary moment and a tragic accident with a tremendous amount of weight," Flanagan comments. "Some 80,000 pounds of contents pancaked her vehicle." TURKEY - June 2nd, 2006: 17 workers were killed when a coal mine collapsed after a methane gas explosion. Energy Minister Hilmi Guler as said five people were also injured in the disaster at the mine in western Turkey and 35 had escaped unharmed. The coal mine in Dursunbey belongs to the Sentas Madencilik company.
