Desperate search for life as toll climbs

Once again Indonesia cops it! It's the little people who suffer the most -- those out in the villages and small towns where they already don't have much of this world's goods. So many dead, so many family members dead or missing, so many homeless. It's heartbreaking to read about the suffering. I pray for God's mercy and help for them.

Desperate search for life as toll climbs - World - smh.com.au

Counting the cost ... a six-year-old boy is dug out of the rubble.

Photo: Reuters

MEDICINE and food were being rushed to quake-hit central Indonesia yesterday as aid agencies dispatched emergency supplies and world leaders offered help and their condolences.

Rescue workers dug desperately for survivors as residents returned to ruined homes on the densely populated island of Java after the 6.3-magnitude earthquake killed up to 5000 people on Saturday.

Up to 20,000 were injured and, according to the United Nations Children's Fund, more than 100,000 left homeless. But other sources placed the number of homeless as high as 200,000. [more...]

See also: Back to zero for the poor amid the devastation

PONIRAN'S daughter was still breathing when he dug her from the ruins of his house. But the five-year-old died in his arms as he waited for treatment at a hospital overflowing with injured.

"Her last words were Daddy, Daddy," said Poniran, as he took a break from searching in the ruins of his ruined house for salvageable items. "I have to start my life from zero again."

Forty-eight hours after their lives were shattered by Saturday's 6.3 magnitude earthquake, tens of thousands of homeless Javanese face an uncertain and grief-scarred future. [more...]