200,000 homes damaged in Indonesia quake: RC

* 90,000 rendered unliveable due to serious damage
* Extensive rains and road damage hampering aid delivery

PADANG: Between 170,000 and 200,000 homes were damaged in last week’s 7.6-magnitude earthquake in Indonesia, about half of which were completely destroyed, the Red Cross said on Tuesday.

Based on an estimate of five people per household, a Red Cross official said up to one million people had been directly affected by damage to their homes. “We estimate there were about 170,000-200,000 houses damaged, 90,000 of those are seriously damaged, meaning you can’t live in them,” said Bob McKerrow, the head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Indonesia.

Asked about the death toll, he said: “I think we’ll see figures rising to 3,000-plus.” The website of the national Disaster Management Agency showed the latest death toll at 704, with 295 missing, on Tuesday. It said there were 101,653 destroyed houses, 48,967 houses with medium damage and 49,026 houses with light damage. McKerrow said in his experience many governments underestimated the death toll out of fear of it reflecting badly on them.

Health workers doused the quake-hit city of Padang with disinfectant to ward off disease outbreaks and helicopters dropped aid to survivors six days on Tuesday. The rescue mission in the port city of 900,000, and in surrounding hills ravaged by landslides, has been all but abandoned for a relief effort to help thousands of homeless. Aid is also pouring in, but the scale of the disaster, heavy rains and road damage mean long delays before it reaches survivors.

“I have seen reports on TV of boxes piling up at the airport and not making it to victims,” said Gamawan Fauzi, the governor of West Sumatra. “That’s not fair. Those are the secondary items, not the priority items like food and water.” Since the quake, villagers have told Reuters correspondents in a number of areas little if any aid had arrived. “It is difficult to get water because it is being contaminated,” said Agus, a resident in the Padang Alai area in the hills outside Padang. “There is no electricity and it is difficult for us to get food and medicine.”

Metro TV showed survivors scrabbling for food aid boxes dropped by helicopters and Red Cross helicopters were also bringing medical personnel to some remote areas. “The immediate needs are to get food to people who are still cut off, still isolated in settlements up in the hills,” said Patrick Fuller, a spokesman for the Red Cross, adding that some areas were only reachable by foot or helicopter. Indonesia’s disaster agency has said it has nine helicopters, while Fuller said that US Navy had offered more. agencies

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