Marxch 29, 205
MSNBC

Photo: Earthquake damage is seen in this aerial photograph of Gunung Sitoli, the biggest city on Indonesia's Nias island, on Tuesday.

GUNUNG SITOLI, Indonesia - Residents searched through smoldering rubble for survivors on Indonesia’s Nias island Tuesday, and relatives wept over the bodies of the dead after an 8.7-magnitude earthquake hammered the region, triggering a tsunami scare. Death toll estimates ranged from 330 to 2,000.

U.N. and other relief agencies rushed to ferry aid supplies to the island, which bore the brunt of the quake’s force almost three months to the day after an even bigger temblor nearby sent killer waves crashing into coastlines around the Indian Ocean’s rim.

Fears of a second tsunami faded Tuesday when seas failed to rise up in the hours after the overnight quake — but not before triggering panic in nations still traumatized by the earlier disaster.

An overflight Tuesday of Gunung Sitoli, the island’s biggest city, indicated about 30 percent of its buildings were destroyed, and there was significant damage in the island’s second biggest town, Teluk Dalam.

At least two fires were still smoldering in Gunung Sitoli. From the air it was possible to see about 1,000 people who had gathered in a large field in the town.

In Jakarta, the SCTV network showed images from the island including survivors weeping over the sarong-covered bodies of a child and a middle-aged woman. In another image, two men on a motorbike carried what appeared to be a body wrapped in sarongs.

In other scenes, survivors used their bare hands to toss away chunks of rubble from a collapsed building.

Death toll expected to rise
Vice President Jusuf Kalla told the el-Shinta radio station in Jakarta that the death toll could rise to between 1,000 and 2,000, based on the amount of destruction to buildings.

Other officials said the dead numbered in the hundreds, not thousands.

Budi Atmaji Adiputro, a spokesman for Indonesia’s Coordinating Agency for National Disaster Relief, said rescuers found 330 bodies in the rubble Tuesday. The toll was expected to rise as more bodies were believed to be trapped in collapsed buildings, he said.

The quake damaged Gunung Sitoli’s airstrip and prevented all but small planes from landing. The Indonesian military flew The Associated Press and other news organizations over the island to inspect the damage.

Fishing villages along the coastline and inland appeared to be largely unaffected.

In Gunung Sitoli, people could be seen digging through the rubble as smoke from burning buildings hung in the air. A steeple had been knocked off a church on the mainly Christian island.

A soccer field was turned into a temporary relief center. People swarmed around U.N. helicopters as they landed to deliver relief supplies.

Aid groups, military mobilize
The International Organization for Migration said it was sending trucks loaded with water, milk and other food items, and medical supplies to the Sumatran port town of Sibolga, where they will be ferried to Gunung Sitoli.

“The army and navy are mobilizing to help,” said presidential adviser Tahi Bonar Silalahi.

In Jakarta, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono postponed a planned visit Wednesday to Australia and said he would fly to Nias to assess the damage.

Alessandra Boas, member of an Oxfam International team sent to Nias by helicopter, said the aid group was heading further afield by motorcycle.

“The devastation is obvious as soon as you land,” she said. “Many of the houses here have collapsed, but it’s still too early for us to get a sense of the full scale of this.”

Thousands of the town’s residents fled to the island’s hills and remained there Tuesday.

“It’s difficult to get information — all the government officials have run to the hills because they are afraid of a tsunami,” presidential envoy T.B. Silalahi said.

Japan and Australia offered to send troops to Nias to help with the cleanup if Jakarta asks. India pledged $2 million in aid.

U.S. officials promised rapid assistance.

“We’re applying what we’ve learned from the previous earthquake so that we can be prepared to be responsive quickly and in a meaningful way,” deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said Monday.

Tsunami fears trigger panic
The earthquake — which occurred along the same tectonic fault line as the massive 9.0-magnitude temblor that caused the Dec. 26 disaster — triggered panic in several Asian countries when governments issued warnings that another set of deadly waves may be about to hit.

Coastal residents from Indonesia to Thailand to Sri Lanka fled to higher ground when the alarm was raised, before hearing hours later that no tsunami materialized.

In Banda Aceh, the city in Indonesia’s Aceh province that was hardest-hit by the tsunami, thousands poured into the streets to flee.

“It was horrible. The only thing on my mind was how to get out of the house immediately and save my 31⁄2 month baby girl,” said 27-year-old Marlina.

In Sri Lanka, warning sirens blared along the nation’s east coast and President Chandrika Kumaratunga urged people to evacuate.

“It was like reliving the same horror of three months ago,” said Fatheena Faleel, who fled her home with her three children.

By dawn Tuesday, the danger had passed and all tsunami warnings had been withdrawn.

The Dec. 26 disaster killed at least 174,000 people in 11 countries, left more than 100,000 missing and rendered 1.5 million homeless.

Seismologists said the epicenter of Monday’s earthquake was about 75 miles north of Nias. It was felt as far away as Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.

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