MSNBC reports the death toll from yesterday's earthquake has reached more than 4,600. Survivors are digging through their crumpled homes Sunday in search of food and clothing:
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.[. . .]
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.”
The death toll expected to rise further. Please go to "How To Help Indonesian Earthquake Victims" and consider donating to one of the charities helping with the relief effort.
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