Indonesia's health minister estimated the death toll from the 7.6 magnitude quake would reach 3,000 occurred on December 26, 2004 just off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia when those listed as 'missing' were included among the dead. The confirmed total now stands at 1,300.
As relief efforts began to concentrate on delivering food, medicine and shelter to survivors, many of whom are living outside in remote villages in the Sumatran jungle, heavy machinery was moved in to clear fallen buildings in the city.
"There's very little chance of finding people alive. It's the beginning of a ramping down in rescue work.""We are taking an aggressive approach today to remove about 140 bodies that we believe are buried near the swimming pool." In the city's main Mjamil hospital which was largely destroyed by the quake, survivors were being treated in tents that also served as operating theatres, many languishing in the suffocating humidity, being fanned by relatives.
"Everything was destroyed, the earthquake took everything from us," said Zainal, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, "when the rain comes we have no where to keep dry.
"We are very grateful but this is the first help we have received since the disaster, please tell them we need help to rebuild our home." In the remote villages in the hills north of Padang, most of which are accessible only on foot, relief supplies were only just beginning to reach survivors who were desperately in need of shelter as torrential rain began to fall last night.
In Jumanak village, some 200 to 300 wedding guests were buried alive, including the bride according to her 15-year-old brother, Iseh.
"I don't want to be here. I know my son is dead. But I cannot go home. I don't want to. So I just wait. But they tell me nothing. It is only bad news." Nasjid.
Philippine flood
MANILA (AFP) – Hundreds of thousands of exhausted Philippine flood survivors crammed into schools, gymnasiums, churches and other makeshift shelters on Tuesday as the death toll from the weekend disaster soared to 246.
Three days after a once-in-a-generation storm pounded Manila and surrounding regions, officials said they were unable to cope with the enormous number of flood victims still pouring into evacuation centres.
"We need clothing, food supplies, food rations and medicine."
Already 3,000 people from the depressed San Andres neighbourhood were at the basketball court, and flood survivors told AFP they were tired and hungry. There was a single toilet for all of them.
Many people have been left with nothing but what they are wearing
Rescue workers are being overwhelmed by the scale of floods in the Philippines that are estimated to have killed at least 140 people, officials say.
'Heroic rescuer'
Reports have also emerged of acts of heroism by members of the public during the floods, including Muelmar Magallanes, who rescued more than 30 people, but ended up sacrificing his own life.
With the help of his older brother, the 18-year-old construction worker tied rope around his waist and took his siblings to safety before going back to the house for his parents, according to the AFP news agency.
Later, he decided go back to save neighbours trapped on rooftops. He then dived back in again when he saw a mother and her six-month-old baby daughter in the water.
"I didn't know that the current was so strong. In an instant, I was under water. We were going to die," the mother Menchie Penalosa told AFP.
"Then this man came from nowhere and grabbed us. He took us to where the other neighbours were, and then he was gone," she added.
Witnesses said an exhausted Mr Megallanes was simply swept away by the water.
His father Samuel said: "He always had a good heart. We had already been saved. But he decided to go back one last time for the girl."
Picked from:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/indonesia/6259125/Sumatra-earthquake-rescue-operation-scaled-back.html,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/01/second-earthquake-sumatra-indonesia,
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jSvmEJ57ktsFxVCZq7aG_8T9rXpAD9B1CL5G3,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8277905.stm
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