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" Indonesians shaken and struggling after devastating earthquake "
The rebuilding has begun, but there is little power, fuel or clean water, the tourism industry is badly damaged, and hopes for those buried alive are fading.Reporting from Padang, Indonesia - Uly Marisa picked up her broom and swept away broken glass and shattered pottery today as the haunting wail of noon prayers rang out over her battered neighborhood in Padang. The radio-station employee has lived through several earthquakes since she moved to this port city of 900,000 people several years ago. But last Wednesday's 7.9-magnitude quake, which killed hundreds of people, was the worst by far. It left her deeply shaken and reflective.
"Everything happens as a lesson from God to us," she said. "I will just pray and be thankful that I can enjoy what I can."
As people start to rebuild their lives, they're searching for answers, grappling with the magnitude of their loss and doing what they can to make sense of it all.
Very few people in this impoverished country have insurance. And the tourism industry, an economic cornerstone, is battered. An estimated 70% of hotel rooms in Padang were destroyed. Power is intermittent, and fuel and clean water remain scarce.
Experts believe thousands of people are still buried under collapsed buildings, and hopes of rescuing them alive are fading. The crowds that ringed rescue operations at collapsed schools and hotels in recent days have all but dispersed. Torrential rains have hampered rescues efforts. Most emergency crews have shifted their efforts to identifying and burying corpses.
The massive international aid operation, involving more than a dozen governments and 72 aid organizations, is fanning out beyond Padang to rural villages, where thousands are homeless and hungry after quake-triggered landslides blocked access roads, demolished homes and swallowed at least three villages.
In the hills of Pariaman, about 35 miles from Padang, entire hillsides were shaken loose. "We can be sure that they are dead," Vice President Jusuf Kalla told reporters. "So now we are waiting for burials."
About 200 to 300 wedding guests who fled a restaurant in Jumanak village were buried alive by a landslide, including the bride, her 15-year-old brother, Iseh, told the Associated Press.
Those who survived in Jumanak said they still hadn't seen any rescue crews four days after the earthquake, with some locals reportedly reduced to digging out rotting corpses with their bare hands.
Indonesia's National Disaster Management Agency said 83,712 houses, 200 public buildings and 285 schools were destroyed. Another 100,000 buildings and 20 miles of road were badly damaged. And five bridges collapsed.
A full death toll has not yet been calculated. The government at one point said 715 were dead and 3,000 were missing. But today it changed its tally to 603 killed and 960 missing and believed dead.
Still, the residents of Padang -- street vendors as well as top provincial officials -- are nothing if not resilient as they try to piece their lives back together.
"We are still scared, but what can we do," said Padang native Heru Marta, 38, a handyman. "Life goes on."
Their insecurity takes different forms. Masni Fanshuri, a 30-year-old law student and music teacher, carries a shortwave radio and backpack filled with his most important documents. It's a habit he picked up after a 2005 earthquake left him with a broken leg; he was in traction for two months.
This week, he said, the shortwave helped him stay informed, realize there was no risk of a tsunami and shepherd his choir students to safety.
Masni hopes administrators will correct some obvious problems laid bare by the disaster, including substandard construction that resulted in hundreds being buried alive and fuel supply problems that developed after roads were blocked by mudslides.
"The lesson is no matter how hard it is or how scared you are, you have to think logically," he said.
In Padang's Chinatown, the city's oldest and most affluent neighborhood and also its hardest hit, rows of three-story shop houses are now 30-foot piles of rubble. Cars are pinned under collapsed buildings. Heaps of scrap metal and debris continue to block roads.
Locals, still not quite able to believe all that's happened, refer to buildings in the past tense: "That used to be a pet shop," said one resident. "I looked at a golden retriever there last week."
Andy Kartadinata, a dentist, stood outside what had been his office, shaking his head. He has no insurance and estimates the value of his destroyed office and the building it sat in at $100,000.
"It's painful," said the former military dentist, who moved to Padang in 2007 to set up a private practice. Every time he sees earthquake images on TV, he says, "I cry."
Nearby, Martin Mekmur sat in front of his ruined home, which housed the family's small printing business but now was a pile of bricks and concrete. The 41-year-old father of three stays up nights guarding against looters, sleeping during the day.
"I don't know what I will do for work at this time. But I will stay here," he said. "Things will get better."
The local government either agrees or has been arm-twisted into taking less central government help. West Sumatra officials announced today that they would need only one month of aid, not the two months Jakarta promised.
"We expect in one month to finish with aid," said Vice Gov. H. Marlis Rahman. "And recovery will begin in one month."
Rahman said all new building projects will require permits based on strict national standards. "West Sumatra is on an earthquake fault," he said. "We have to expect this and be ready."
James Hellyward, head of the provincial tourism office, today announced a campaign to "convince the world we are OK." Rahman noted that businesses in the main markets were starting to reopen. "The people of Padang have started to revive," he said.
With each passing day without another aftershock, people gradually become less jittery. The first night after the earthquake, Masni and his friends saw bodies everywhere, including some corpses being transported on bedsheets.
"I wanted to cry that night, but I couldn't," said Masni. "It was only last night that I managed to cry. Only now can I start to think the worst is over."
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