Translated material
After the point
Indonesia continues to count losses from earthquake
The number of people officially declared dead from Saturday's earthquake in the area of the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta yesterday exceeded five thousand people (according to the latest data - 5137). There is no exact information about the number of wounded, injured, homeless people. Most likely, the total number of victims will be in the hundreds of thousands. Our fellow citizens are not on the list of earthquake victims, the press service of the Russian Foreign Ministry reported yesterday. The fact is that in the vicinity of Yogyakarta there are practically no popular tourist attractions and resort areas. In addition, as the press secretary of the Federal Agency for Tourism (Rosturizm) Sergei Sinitsyn told Interfax, recently, due to increased volcanic activity, short excursions have not been organized in this area (the nearby Merapi volcano has long been threatening Java with another catastrophic eruption ).Now in the area of the tragedy, Indonesian government structures are continuing the rescue operation, pulling people out from under the rubble, and transferring the survivors to refugee camps. The country's Vice President Yusuf Kallu yesterday estimated the number of those who will need help at 50 thousand people. However, rescuers have not yet reached remote villages, so these numbers will rise. In the city of Bantul, 80% of buildings were destroyed, refugees filled the roads of East Java. The situation is complicated by the fact that the Yogyakarta airport, which was damaged by the tremors, is closed to heavy aircraft and the movement of humanitarian aid by air is difficult. In the disaster area, there is not enough water, food, power supply has been interrupted, there is a shortage of medicines and dressings: all the efforts of the authorities and the Red Cross are not yet enough. Meanwhile, seismologists somewhat reassured the Indonesians: as RIA Novosti was told by the National Administration of Meteorology and Geophysics of Indonesia, weak tremors continue to be measured in the hundreds, but overall the situation has returned to normal.
Indonesia in recent years, unfortunately, has acquired a strong reputation as the most dangerous territory on our planet. Geology is primarily to blame for this: this state is located in the most active part of the “belt of fire” - a zone of tectonic faults running along the Pacific coast. Indonesia had not yet had time to properly restore Sumatra, which suffered from the devastating tsunami in December the year before last, when it was faced with a new natural disaster. Moreover, the epicenter of Saturday's tremors was located near the most densely populated region of the globe - in terms of the number of inhabitants, the relatively small Java exceeds most countries in the world.
As in December 2004, Indonesia was offered international assistance. The UK allocated 4 million pounds, the European Commission - 3 million euros, France, the USA, Spain, Germany, South Korea, Japan announced their readiness to send their doctors and humanitarian aid - tents, medicines, blankets - to Indonesia. Russia also offered to help Indonesia. Indonesia itself is ready to allocate more than $100 million for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the region within a year, but most likely this will not be enough: yesterday the amount of damage caused by the tremors was tentatively estimated at $311 million.