Perabot Banjir

Musim hujan adakalanya mengundang trauma kepada mereka yang pernah menjadi mangsa banjir. Barangan perabot kayu mudah rosak apabila terendam di dalam air terutamanya dalam tempoh yang lama. Mungkin perabot yang terbuat daripada besi dan kaca salah satu dari penyelesaiannya. Gambar yang dipaparkan di atas merupakan sebahagian daripada kemasan Hotel Nouvelle yang dulunya dikenali sebagai Hotel Mint. Terletak di KM 8, Lebuhraya Kuala Lumpur-Seremban, Seri Kembangan, Selangor, keseluruhan perabot di dalam bilik hotel terbuat daripada besi dan kaca telus cahaya. Hasilnya, ruang bilik (termasuk bilik air) tampak lebih luas dan moden.

Japan Earthquake

A mammoth relief mission is swinging into action in north-east Japan, a day after a devastating earthquake and tsunami claimed hundreds of lives.

Whole villages have been washed away and at least one town has been largely destroyed. Police said 215,000 people have fled their homes.

The tsunami was triggered by Japan's biggest earthquake since records began.

Meanwhile nuclear officials said they were checking whether a damaged reactor had gone into meltdown.

The government had earlier declared a state of emergency at five nuclear reactors as cooling systems failed.

Analysts say a meltdown would not necessarily lead to a major disaster because light-water reactors would not explode even if they overheated.

From the air it was clear that what had been paddy fields and villages are now sea-water lagoons. The water came in with the tsunami in some places and hasn't gone out again. It must have been very difficult for rescuers to get to those areas during the night.

The scale of the devastation has become clearer too. Overnight we heard snippets of information - 300 bodies found in one ward of one city. In another town, 300 homes engulfed by a wave that came in at rooftop height. Now local media are reporting that a town in Iwate prefecture, home of 23,000 people, has been largely destroyed.

The 8.9-magnitude tremor struck in the afternoon local time on Friday off the coast of Honshu island at a depth of about 24km, 400km (250 miles) north-east of Tokyo.

It was nearly 8,000 times stronger than last month's quake in New Zealand that devastated the city of Christchurch, scientists said.

Japanese police told Kyodo news agency 433 people are confirmed to have died and 784 more are missing.

The country's military has mobilised thousands of troops, 300 planes and 40 ships for the relief effort.

The quake triggered a tsunami up to 10m (30ft), with waves of 7m battering the Japanese coast.

A muddy torrent of water swept cars and homes far inland, turning residential areas and paddy fields into a lagoon of debris-filled sea water.

One of the worst-hit areas was the port city of Sendai, in Miyagi prefecture, where police said between 200 and 300 bodies were found in one ward alone.

The town of Rikuzentakada, in Iwate prefecture, seemed mostly under water, with barely a trace of any buildings.

Japan Railways said it could not trace four trains along the north-eastern coast, and a ship carrying 100 people was also reported missing.

Several fires were reported in Kesennuma, in Miyagi prefecture, and one-third of the city was also said to be under water.

Some 1,800 homes were reported to have been destroyed in the city of Minamisoma, Fukushima prefecture.

And a dam burst in north-eastern Fukushima prefecture, sweeping away homes, Kyodo reported.

More than 50 aftershocks - many of them more than magnitude 6.0 - have rattled the country.
"It was the biggest earthquake I have ever felt. I thought I would die," said Sayaka Umezawa, a 22-year-old student who was visiting the port of Hakodate.

In central Tokyo, a number of office workers spent the night in their offices because the lifts stopped working.

Millions of commuters were stranded overnight and others walked home after train services were suspended. Most services have now resumed.

At least 20 people were injured in Tokyo when the roof of a hall collapsed on to a graduation ceremony.

About four million homes in and around the city suffered power cuts.

The tsunami rolled across the Pacific at the speed of a jetliner but had weakened before it hit Hawaii and the US West Coast.

Thousands of people were ordered to evacuate coastal areas in the states of California, Oregon and Washington.

A port in Oregon is reported to have been seriously damaged by the waves.

In the immediate aftermath of the quake, a tsunami warning extended across the Pacific to North and South America, where many other coastal regions were evacuated.

But the alert was later lifted in most parts, including the Philippines, Indonesia, Australia and China.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12720489

Deadliest Earthquakes

27 July 1976, Tangshan, China: est 655,000 killed, 7.5
12 Jan 2010, Haiti: 222,570 killed, 7.0
8 Oct 2005, Pakistan: 80,361 killed, 7.6
31 May 1970 Chimbote, Peru: 70,000 killed, 7.9

Source: USGS

Kamar Baqa

Siapa bilang
aku tak harus peduli
kerna nantinya
kubur kita berbeza?

Ternyata
kita seperliangan
beradu di kamar baqa
sementara menanti
tiupan sangkakala.

Tangisan Merapi

Dunia yang sementara
bukan untuk kutangisi atas kehancurannya
kerana yang lebih layak untuk kutakuti
adalah Dia - Allah Yang Maha Esa.

Merapi

Since its initial eruptions on October 25th, Indonesia's Mount Merapi continues to spew hot gases and ash as far as 5,000 meters into the atmosphere, wreaking havoc on surrounding villages and farms, and disrupting air travel - and more than 140 people have been killed by the eruptions over the past two weeks. Hundreds of thousands of residents have been displaced, many of them living in temporary shelters until the Indonesian government reduces the existing 20 km "safe zone", and allows them and their livestock to return.

The Big Picture, http://www.boston.com

Perlis: Sekali Air Bah

Nota: Dunia kian tua. Iklim dunia berubah dan adakalanya sukar dijangka. Berikutan itu, pasukan pengurusan bencana alam yang cekap diperlukan sebelum, semasa dan selepas ianya berlaku.

Hujan turun tanpa henti dari malam ke pagi. Bermula dari jam 4.00 pagi, air naik perlahan-lahan setelah empangan dibuka. Sekitar jam 11.00, bekalan elektrik terputus.

Rumah-rumah di kawasan rendah mulai ditenggelami air.Penduduk berpusu-pusu keluar menuju kawasan yang lebih selamat. Banyak kedai telah ditutup. Orang ramai beratur panjang untuk mendapatkan barangan keperluan.

China Berkabung

BEIJING 21 April - Bunyi hon kenderaan dan siren kedengaran ketika orang ramai menundukkan kepala sempena hari berkabung hari ini di daerah Yushu, Tibet, wilayah barat China, kawasan yang musnah akibat gempa bumi minggu lalu.

Agensi berita Xinhua melaporkan, angka korban rasmi akibat gempa yang menggegarkan kawasan pergunungan dan pedalaman wilayah Qinghai itu pada Rabu lalu kini mencecah 2,064 orang, sementara 175 lagi masih hilang.

Kebanyakan mangsa yang terbunuh penduduk etnik Tibet di pekan utama Jiegu, Yushu, kawasan tanah tinggi Tibet dengan ketinggian kira-kira 4,000 meter dari paras laut.

Tepat pukul 10 pagi (9 pagi waktu Malaysia) orang ramai, tentera dan kakitangan kerajaan di ibu kota Xining, wilayah Qinghai yang berhimpun menundukkan kepala mereka selama tiga minit ketika siren dan hon dibunyikan sebagai tanda berkabung, menurut rakaman televisyen milik negara.

Siaran itu turut menunjukkan sembilan anggota Jawatankuasa Tetap Politburo, Parti Komunis yang diketuai Presiden Hu Jintao dan Perdana Menteri Wen Jiabao menundukkan kepala.

Di Jiegu, penduduk dan sami Buddha berhimpun di atas bukit di mana beratus-ratus mayat mangsa dibakar pada minggu lalu, menurut Nami, seorang sami yang menyertai kerja-kerja menyelamat.

"Kami mahu mengingati mereka, namun kini kami perlu menumpukan kepada usaha membantu mangsa yang terselamat dan pembinaan semula Jiegu.

"Orang ramai amat sedih. Ia akan mengambil masa yang lama untuk melupakan mala petaka ini," kata Nami melalui panggilan telefon.

Bendera kebangsaan China di seluruh negara dikibarkan separuh tiang dan aktiviti serta program hiburan dihentikan selama sehari.

Di tengah dataran Tiananmen di Beijing, beratus-ratus penduduk turut berdiri sambil menundukkan kepala. Bagaimanapun aktiviti pelancongan berjalan seperti biasa.

Kejadian ini merupakan bencana terbaru yang melanda negara yang sering dilanda gempa, banjir dan kemarau ini.

Pada Mei 2008, wilayah barat daya Sichuan dilanda gempa bumi kuat yang mengorbankan sekurang-kurangnya 80,000 orang. - Reuters

Sumber: Utusan Malaysia

Tragedi Berdarah Bab Berdieyinne

MEKNES, Maghribi 20 Feb. – Menara sebuah masjid bersejarah yang runtuh menyebabkan kira-kira 41 orang terbunuh dan mencederakan 75 yang lain di bandar Meknes, tengah Maghribi, kata pegawai tempatan hari ini.

Antara yang cedera dalam runtuhan menara Masjid Bab Berdieyinne di bandar lama tersebut, 51 daripadanya sudahpun dibenarkan keluar hospital selepas menerima rawatan, demikian menurut pegawai pertahanan awam, Mohamed Ismael Alaoui.

Masjid kurun ke-18 berkenaan sesak dengan orang ramai yang menunaikan solat Jumaat ketika insiden berlaku dan pegawai tempatan memberi amaran angka korban berkemungkinan besar akan meningkat.

Kebanyakan penduduk berpendapat ia berpunca daripada hujan lebat yang melanda sejak beberapa hari lalu.

“Menara dan sebahagian daripada bumbung masjid runtuh ke atas dewan solat ketika jemaah berkumpul untuk sembahyang Jumaat,” kata seorang penduduk.

Gambar rakaman televisyen menunjukkan beratus penduduk mengalihkan runtuhan dalam usaha pantas untuk mencari mangsa yang masih hidup.

Pasukan menyelamat menggunakan penyodok malah tangan kosong ketika ramai yang lain membentuk rantaian manusia untuk mengalihkan runtuhan dari kawasan kejadian.

“Selain solat Jumaat, jemaah juga akan menyembahyangkan jenazah yang diletakkan di dalam masjid,” kata seorang pegawai.

Kementerian Dalam Negeri sebelum ini mengumumkan insiden itu berlaku pada 1245 GMT (pukul 8.45 malam tadi waktu Malaysia) dengan korban sekurang-kurangnya 11 orang, namun ia semakin meningkat.

Penyelamat pada awalnya berdepan kesukaran mengalihkan runtuhan kerana masjid itu terletak di kawasan padat Bandar Lama yang dipisahkan dengan tembok-tembok tinggi.

Perkhidmatan kecemasan menghantar kebanyakan mangsa ke hospital di Fes, 60 kilometer di utara bandar ini. Mereka yang cedera ringan dirawat di Meknes.

Tragedi di Masjid Bab Berdieyinne adalah yang terburuk dalam sejarah negara utara Afrika ini, dengan kebanyakan bandar dan pekannya masih mengekalkan bangunan yang berusia beberapa kurun.

Masjid itu sendiri diperbuat daripada batu-bata campuran lumpur serta jerami dan menaranya menjadi mercu tanda Meknes. – AFP

Nota:

1. Sumber - Utusan Malaysia

2. Sejauh manakah tahap keselamatan masjid-masjid dan monumen-monumen lama kita.. juga bangunan yang baru dibina?

150,000 Haiti quake victims buried, gov't says

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The truckers filling Haiti's mass graves with bodies reported ever higher numbers: More than 150,000 quake victims have been buried by the government, an official said Sunday.

That doesn't count those still under the debris, carried off by relatives or killed in the outlying quake zone.

"Nobody knows how many bodies are buried in the rubble — 200,000? 300,000? Who knows the overall death toll?" said the official, Communications Minister Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue.

Dealing with the living, meanwhile, a global army of aid workers was getting more food into people's hands, but acknowledged falling short. "We wish we could do more, quicker," said U.N. World Food Program chief Josette Sheeran, visiting Port-au-Prince.

In the Cite Soleil slum, U.S. soldiers and Brazilian U.N. peacekeeping troops distributed food. Lunie Marcelin, 57, said the handouts will help her and six grown children "but it is not enough. We need more."

Yet another aftershock, one of more than 50 since the great quake Jan. 12, shook Port-au-Prince on Sunday, registering 4.7 magnitude, the U.S. Geological Survey said. There were no immediate reports of further damage.

The Haitian government was urging many of the estimated 600,000 homeless huddled in open areas of Port-au-Prince, a city of 2 million, to look for better shelter with relatives or others in the countryside. Some 200,000 were believed already to have done so, most taking advantage of free government transportation, and others formed a steady stream out of the city on Sunday.
International experts searched for sites to erect tent cities for quake refugees on the capital's outskirts, but such short-term solutions were still weeks away, said the International Organization for Migration, an intergovernmental agency.

"We also need tents. There is a shortage of tents," said Vincent Houver, the Geneva-based agency's chief of mission in Haiti. Their Port-au-Prince warehouse has 10,000 family-size tents, but some 100,000 are needed, he said. The organization has appealed for $30 million for that and other needs, and has received two-thirds of that so far.

In the aftermath of the 7.0-magnitude earthquake, the casualty estimates have been necessarily tentative. Lassegue told The Associated Press the government's figure of 150,000 buried, from the capital area alone, was reported by CNE, a state company collecting corpses and burying them north of Port-au-Prince.

That number would tend to confirm an overall estimate of 200,000 dead reported last week by the European Commission, citing Haitian government sources. The United Nations, meanwhile, was sticking Sunday with an earlier confirmed death toll of at least 111,481, based on recovered bodies.

The final casualty estimates, which the European Commission said also include some 250,000 injured, will clearly place the Haiti earthquake among the deadliest natural catastrophes of recent times. That list includes: the 1970 Bangladesh cyclone, believed to have killed 300,000 people; the 1974 northeast China earthquake, which killed at least 242,000 people; and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, with 226,000 dead.

One who wouldn't die in Port-au-Prince was Wismond Exantus, who was extricated from the rubble Saturday. He spoke with the AP from his cot in a French field hospital on Sunday, saying the first thing he wanted to do was find a church to give thanks.

He spent the 11 days buried in the ruins of a hotel grocery store praying, reciting psalms and sleeping, he said. "I wasn't afraid because I knew they were searching and would come for me," he said.

With such rescues now increasingly unlikely, Haiti's government has declared an end to search operations for the living, shifting the focus more than ever to caring for the thousands surviving in squalid, makeshift camps.

The World Food Program had delivered about 2 million meals to the needy on Friday, up from 1.2 million on Thursday, Sheeran said. But she acknowledged that much more was needed.

"This is the most complex operation WFP has ever launched," she said. "Food distribution is very difficult," said Dr. Henry Ariel of the Haitian Health Ministry. "The food doesn't reach up to now everyone."

The scene Sunday at Cite Soleil, the capital's largest and most notorious slum, showed the need.
Thousands of men, women and children lined up and waited peacefully for their turn as the American and Brazilian troops handed out aid — the Americans gave ready-to-eat meals, high-energy biscuits and bottled water, the Brazilians passed out small bags holding uncooked beans, salt, sugar and sardines, as well as water.

The need for medical care, especially surgery, postoperative care and drugs, still overwhelmed the help available, aid agencies reported. In the isolated southern port city of Jacmel alone, about 100 patients needed surgery as of Friday, the U.N. reported. Medical personnel were there, but not the necessary surgery supplies.

In Port-au-Prince, meanwhile, the aid group Doctors Without Borders said its inflatable hospital — six large inflatable tents flown in from France — was preparing for its first operations.

At the Choscal hospital in Cite Soleil, the operating room has been busy with obstetric cases and some machete and gunshot wounds, Doctors Without Borders said, as looting and violence sputtered on among the ruins. The numbers of young men scavenging for goods seemed lower, however, since most shops were already entirely cleaned out.

The world's nations have pledged some $1 billion in emergency aid to Haiti. Organizers of Friday night's "Hope for Haiti Now" international telethon reported the event raised $57 million, with more pledges from ordinary people still coming in.

___
Associated Press writers contributing to this story included Michelle Faul, Ben Fox and Paul Haven in Port-au-Prince, and Charles J. Hanley in Mexico City.

Source: Yahoo News, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100125/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_haiti_earthquake

Haiti digegar gempa lagi

KANAK-KANAK berusia empat tahun dikenali sebagai Joicy meneguk air sementara menunggu giliran untuk dirawat oleh B-FAST (Pasukan Bantuan Kecemasan dan Sokongan Belgium) di khemah rawatan di Port-au-Prince, Haiti, kelmarin. – REUTERS

PORT-AU-PRINCE 21 Jan. – Satu gegaran susulan kuat menggegar bandar Haiti semalam, yang telah terjejas akibat gempa bumi sebelum ini, mengakibatkan beribu-ribu mangsa gempa bumi yang masih trauma bertempiaran lari ke jalan-jalan raya dalam keadaan takut.

Dalam pada itu, walaupun selepas lapan hari bencana tersebut berlaku, masih ada mangsa berjaya diselamatkan daripada runtuhan yang disifatkan sebagai satu keajaiban.

Di tengah-tengah kubur besar, khemah yang menempatkan klinik sementara dan mangsa yang kian terdesak menanti bantuan, pasukan penyelamat berjaya mengeluarkan seorang bayi, beberapa kanak-kanak dan mangsa-mangsa lain daripada bawah runtuhan di negara Caribbean itu.

Beribu-ribu tentera Amerika Syarikat (AS) turut ditempatkan ketika negara-negara lain berjanji untuk menghantar lebih ramai tentera bagi membantu pengagihan bantuan, menyediakan rawatan perubatan dan menjamin situasi selamat di jalan-jalan bagi mangsa yang terjejas untuk terus hidup.

Gegaran susulan terbesar menggegar waktu subuh semalam, lapan hari selepas ibu negara Haiti dikejutkan dengan satu gempa bumi sekuat 7.0 pada skala Richter, mengorbankan sekurang-kurangnya 75,000 nyawa dan mengakibatkan sejuta yang lain hilang tempat tinggal.

“Tuhan mahu musnahkan semua rakyat Haiti kerana mereka jahat,’’ kata Eleude Joseph, seorang ibu dua anak kepada AFP di sebuah kem kotor yang menempatkan 6,000 mangsa di Place Saint-Pierre.

Tiada laporan sesiapa terbunuh atau tercedera oleh gegaran susulan 6.1 pada skala Richter itu, namun beberapa bangunan yang rosak dilapor runtuh, termasuk satu-satunya dinding gereja utama di Haiti.

Walaupun digegarkan dengan ancaman terbaru, pasukan penyelamat berhempas pulas meneruskan operasi mencari dan penat lelah mereka akhirnya berbalas dengan penemuan mangsa yang masih terselamat iaitu seorang bayi perempuan berusia 23 hari, kanak-kanak lelaki berumur lima tahun dan kanak-kanak perempuan berusia 11 tahun.

Bagaimanapun, usaha mencari mungkin akan dihentikan apabila operasi bantuan besar-besaran dimulakan bagi membantu beribu-ribu mangsa yang terselamat yang berdepan masalah kekurangan air di khemah-khemah sementara, di mana penyakit cirit-birit sudah merebak.

Bantuan antarabangsa juga kini ditumpukan kepada usaha membina semula negara tersebut, dengan persidangan penderma utama dijangka diadakan Isnin depan di Montreal. – AFP

Sumber: Utusan Malaysia Online

Lara Bencana Dekad Pertama

Oleh Ku Seman Ku Hussain dalam Utusan Malaysia

Menulis kembali beberapa tragedi bencana alam yang melekat di ingatan dan meninggalkan trauma yang panjang adalah membaca kembali perihal alam. Bencana berlaku tetapi tidak berlalu begitu saja. Bencana meninggalkan pesan dan iktibar tentang kekerdilan manusia untuk mendepani fenomena alam yang penuh misteri dan sangat luar biasa.

Sesekali apabila alam berbicara, berdengus dan merajuk, sesekali juga manusia meratap tangis membilang kehilangan dan kemusnahan yang tidak mungkin dibayar waima berabad lamanya. Bencana alam tidak dapat dihalang tetapi boleh dikurangkan kemusnahan dengan kebijaksanaan akal.

Setiap abad dan dekad berlalu, pasti ada meninggalkan catatan tentang kemusnahan akibat bencana alam. Gempa bumi, taufan, banjir dan letupan gunung berapi menjadi kata kunci mengingatkan kita kepada laranya bencana kepada manusia. Sepanjang dekad pertama abad ke 21, diari kita diwarnai merah dengan kemusnahan dan kehilangan nyawa yang luar biasa angkanya.

Pada geografi yang relatif hampir dengan kita letupan gunung berapi Krakatau di Selat Sunda, Indonesia menjadi ikon bencana alam yang diingati di seluruh dunia pada abad ke 19 dulu. Letupan gunung berapi Krakatau pada 20 Mei 1883 yang berlarutan beberapa hari mengakibatkan gelombang setinggi 40 meter di lautan berhampiran.

Pada abad ke 19, Krakatau yang mencatatkan kehilangan nyawa lebih 30,000 selain harta benda adalah yang paling diingati dalam catatan bencana alam dunia. Banyak misteri Krakatau yang belum terungkai antara kepercayaan mistik dan fakta hinggalah bersambung kepada tragedi tsunami melanda Acheh pada 26 Disember 2004.

Krakatau seolah-olah menghubungkan Sunda dengan Acheh, menyambungkan abad ke 19 dengan dekad pertama abad ke 21 dengan skala kemusnahan harta benda dan kehilangan nyawa yang berpuluh kali ganda lebih besar. Krakatau yang belum hilang dari ingatan sekalipun gambaran dahsyat hanya kelihatan di filem, tsunami menzahirkan dahsyatnya bencana ini di depan mata.

Tsunami di Acheh terbentuk daripada kesan gegaran gempa bumi 9.1 dan 9.3 skala richter di dasar laut. Gempa dahsyat ini juga membentuk tsunami di sebelah negara lain termasuk Malaysia. Korban tsunami di Acheh saja direkodkan sebanyak 300,000 orang. Ini tidak termasuk di Sri Lanka dan beberapa negara lain yang menerima kesan yang teruk. Dicatatkan gempa bumi ini yang kedua terbesar dan kesannya yang juga sangat besar mengubah landskap sosial dan geografi khususnya di Acheh.

Kekuatan gempa bumi dan pukulan tsunami telah mengubah kedudukan Acheh di peta dunia, sementara geografi wilayah Islam yang kaya dengan hasil bumi di Indonesia itu bertukar wajah selepas gelombang "melepasi menara masjid" menyapu bersih Banda Acheh.

Bencana tsunami ini sekaligus meletakkan Acheh dalam "peta dunia" apabila saluran berita di seluruh dunia memaparkan tragedi tsunami terbesar di dunia. Sementara di Indonesia sendiri, inilah yang terbesar selepas letupan Krakatau dua abad sebelumnya.

Gambaran kemusnahan di luar igau dan khayal manusia. Walaupun tidak ada footage yang menunjukkan bagaimana ombak yang tingginya berpuluh meter itu menyerang daratan dan menyapu Banda Acheh, tetapi kesan kemusnahan boleh memberikan gambaran. Tragedi yang genap lima tahun semalam itu tidak akan terpadam dari ingatan seluruh umat manusia tentang keajaiban dan seninya Tuhan menurunkan bencana.

Tahap kemusnahan tsunami adalah yang kedua selepas tragedi banjir besar di Sungai Huang He (Yellow River) di China tahun 1887. Tragedi itu mengorbankan tidak kurang 900,000 nyawa, satu-satunya bencana alam terbesar yang dicatatkan setakat ini. Bencana banjir itu memusnahkan kawasan seluas 70,000 kilometer persegi dan sekurang-kurang dua juta kehilangan tempat tinggal.

Gempa bumi kelihatan menjadi penyebab utama bencana alam yang mengorbankan nyawa dan harta benda di seluruh dunia. Walaupun taufan dan puting beliung serta banjir menjadi penyumbang bencana alam pada dekad awal abad ini, gempa bumi kelihatan lebih banyak memusnahkan bumi.

Selepas tsunami di Acheh yang disebabkan oleh gempa bumi di dasar laut, gempa bumi di daratan juga tidak kurang hebat kuasa pemusnahnya seperti gempa bumi di Bam, Iran tahun 2003, gempa bumi di Kashmir, Pakistan tahun 2004, gempa bumi Sichuan, China pada 2008 dan yang terbaru gempa bumi di Padang, Sumatera pada tahun ini.

Trauma

Kesan kemusnahan dan trauma gempa bumi di Padang, Sumatera seperti masih terasa dengan catatan-catatan tragis bumi yang menelan manusia. Padang, yang menjadi "bunga" kepada Indonesia kerana keindahan alam berbukit dan latar padang saujana dengan sekelip mata terburai seperti medan pertempuran.

Gempa bumi yang berukuran 7.6 skala richter itu menyambung duka Indonesia yang menangisi tragedi tsunami di Acheh lima tahun lalu. Tragedi bencana di Padang juga menyaksikan kemusnahan yang tidak tertanggung mata memandang, ini ditambah pula dengan korban nyawa akibat bumi Padang seolah terbelah dua. Semua ini adalah himpunan cerita duka Indonesia pada dekad pertama abad baru.

Gempa bumi Kashmir pada 8 Oktober 2005 juga tidak kurang hebat kemusnahannya kepada Pakistan. Gempa bumi berukuran 7.6 skala richter berlaku berhampiran bandar raya Muzzaffarrabad. Bencana ini dikatakan sama ukurannya dengan gempa bumi di San Francisco pada 1906, gempa bumi Quetta pada 1935, gempa bumi Gujarat pada 2001 dan gempa bumi Sumatera pada tahun ini.

Pihak berkuasa Pakistan mengeluarkan kenyataan rasmi mengenai 79,000 orang yang terkorban termasuk 1,400 orang di India dan empat orang di Afghanistan.

Gempa bumi ini juga mengakibatkan 3.3 juta penduduk kehilangan tempat tinggal serta memberikan kesan secara langsung kepada lapan juta orang selain kemusnahan harta benda yang dianggarkan RM15 bilion.

Pada dekad pertama abad ini kelihatan lebih banyak diancam oleh gempa bumi yang mengakibatkan banyak kehilangan nyawa dan kemusnahan harta benda. Begitu juga dengan gempa bumi di Sichuan, China pada tahun lalu yang mengakibatkan kehilangan nyawa sebanyak 69,000 orang.

Dekad pertama abad ini juga mencatatkan tentang dahsyatnya puting beliung Nargis yang melanda Myanmar pada 27 April tahun lalu. Walaupun hanya seminggu Nargis dicatatkan sebagai bencana alam paling buruk bagi Myanmar apabila mengorbankan tidak kurang 146,000 nyawa selain beribu-ribu orang hilang.

Puting beliung Nargis yang berkelajuan 165 kilometer sejam itu meninggalkan kerugian RM38 bilion kepada negara yang bergolak dan miskin itu. Kesan sosial sangat ketara selepas bencana dan kadar kemiskinan naik dengan mendadak apabila rakyat kehilangan sumber pendapatan, tempat tinggal dan diserang penyakit yang menular selepas bencana. Nargis dicatatkan sebagai puting beliung kelapan terdahsyat yang pernah melanda dunia.

Nargis juga satu fenomena alam yang bukan saja dahsyat sekaligus unik. Beberapa laporan mengatakan pihak berkuasa India telah memberi amaran lebih 48 jam kepada pihak berkuasa Myanmar tentang kehadiran puting beliung tersebut. Tetapi disebabkan krisis politik dan pergolakan dalam negara Myanmar usaha untuk memindahkan penduduk dan menyelamat menjadi begitu perlahan.

Ini ditambah pula dengan pihak berkuasa tentera Myanmar yang menolak bantuan kemanusian yang dihulurkan oleh Barat khususnya Amerika Syarikat (AS). Nargis dalam bahasa Urdu yang diambil dari bahasa Parsi bermaksud sejenis bunga kuning yang hujungnya seperti trompet meninggalkan kesan buruk berganda kepada negara Myanmar. Sudahlah diserkup krisis politik, miskin dan menjadi pilihan puting beliung untuk "menari".

Kronologi Gempa Bumi dan Tsunami

30 September 2009
Satu gempa bumi 7.6 pada skala Richter menggegar Padang di pulau Sumatera, Indonesia. Seramai 704 mangsa mati dan sehingga 4,000 terperangkap di bawah runtuhan. Gegaran sekuat 7.0 pada skala Richter menggegar bahagian selatan Sumatera beberapa jam kemudian.

29 September 2009
Tsunami besar tercetus ekoran gempa 8.0 skala Richter di Samoa dan American Samoa, membunuh sekurang-kurangnya 177 orang di wilayah itu, sementara beratus-ratus yang lain dilaporkan hilang. Tsunami turut melanda Tonga.

2 September 2009
Gempa 7.0 skala Richter menggegar Tasikmalaya, pulau Jawa, mengorbankan 123 orang dan mencetuskan tanah runtuh.

6 April 2009
Hampir 300 maut di bandar L'Aquila, Itali apabila gempa 5.8 pada skala Richter melanda.

29 Oktober 2008
Barat daya Pakistan digegar gempa 6.4 skala Richter, menyebabkan sehingga 300 penduduk meninggal dunia dan berpuluh ribu yang lain hilang tempat tinggal.

12 Mei 2008
Gempa 8.0 skala Richter menggegar Sichuan, barat daya China. Lebih 87,000 maut atau hilang.

3 Februari 2008
Satu gempa dengan magnitud 6.1 pada skala Richter menggegar timur Congo dan barat Rwanda, membunuh 45 orang dan menyebabkan ribuan yang lain hilang tempat tinggal.

2 April 2007
Lebih 50 nyawa maut, sementara ribuan yang lain hilang tempat tinggal selepas gempa bermagnitud 8.0 skala Richter melanda Kepulauan Solomon dan menyebabkan tsunami.

6 Mac 2007
Gempa berukuran 6.3 pada skala Richter menggegar pulau Sumatera, merobohkan bangunan dan mengorbankan sekurang-kurangnya 70 orang.

17 Julai 2006
Sekurang-kurangnya 596 maut, lebih 9,500 cedera dan 74,000 yang lain hilang tempat tinggal setelah gempa dasar laut sekuat 7.7 skala Richter melanda pulau Jawa dan mencetuskan tsunami.

27 Mei 2006
Wilayah Yogyakarya dilanda gempa 6.3 skala Richter, mengorbankan 6,000 mangsa dan menyebabkan 1.5 juta penduduk hilang tempat tinggal.

8 Oktober 2005
Satu gempa 7.6 pada skala Richter membunuh lebih 75,000 orang, kebanyakannya di bahagian sempadan di Pakistan Utara dan wilayah Kashmir. Seramai 3.5 juta hilang terpaksa dipindahkan.

28 Mac 2005
Sekurang-kurangnya 900 maut apabila gempa dengan magnitud 8.6 pada skala Richter menggegar pulau Nias, Sumatera.

26 Disember 2004
Gempa dasar laut sekuat 9.1 skala Richter dari pantai pulau Sumatera mencetuskan tsunami yang membunuh 220,000 mangsa di sekitar Lautan Hindi termasuk 168,000 nyawa di Acheh, Indonesia.

26 Disember 2003
Gempa kuat 6.7 pada skala Richter menggegar bandar Bam, Iraq, mengakibatkan sekurang-kurangnya 31,884 maut dan mencederakan 18,000 yang lain.

26 Januari 2001
Gujarat di barat India digegar gempa kuat, mengorbankan 25,000 orang dan 166,000 mangsa cedera. - AFP

Sumber: Utusan Malaysia

Nota: Bumi- sebuah planet kecil, tua lagi 'uzur' yang kian menjadi rebutan manusia.

Village deaths to lift Indonesian quake death toll

By IRWAN FIRDAUS and ERIC TALMADGE, Associated Press Writers Irwan Firdaus And Eric Talmadge, Associated Press Writers – Sat Oct 3, 2:44 pm ET

PADANG, Indonesia – The death toll from Indonesia's massive earthquake will likely double as officials on Saturday reached rural communities wiped out by landslides that buried more than 600 people under mountains of mud, most of them guests at a wedding celebration.

Virtually nothing remained of four villages that had dotted the hillside of the Padang Pariman district in Indonesia's West Sumatra just three days ago, said officials and an Associated Press photographer who flew over the devastated area.

Hundreds of doctors, nurses, search and rescue experts and cleanup crews arrived at the regional airport from around the globe with tons of food, tents, medicine, clean water, generators and a field hospital.

But with no electricity, fuel shortages and telecommunication outages the massive operation was chaotic.

Roughly 400 people were at a communal wedding in Pulau Aiya village when Wednesday's 7.6 magnitude quake unleashed a torrent of mud, rock and felled palm trees, said Rustam Pakaya, the head of Indonesia's Health Ministry crisis center.

"They were sucked 30 meters (100 feet) deep into the earth," he said. "Even the mosque's minaret, taller than 20 meters (65 feet), disappeared."

Twenty-six bodies were pulled from the rubble-strewn brown earth in nearby Lubuk Lawe and Jumena, but 618 bodies remained far beyond the reach of residents who worked without outside help because roads had been severed, he said.

The number of fatalities in the disaster will jump to more than 1,300 if all those people are confirmed dead. The government's death toll on Saturday held steady at 715, most reported in the region's badly hit capital of 900,000, Padang, where aid efforts are concentrated.

As many as 3,000 people had been declared missing before news about the obliterated villages emerged, while 2,400 were hospitalized and tens of thousands of people are believed to have been displaced.

More than 1.1 million residents live in the 10 quake-hit districts, the United Nations estimated in a situation assessment, while the government said more than 30,000 homes, schools, mosques, hospitals and government offices had been flattened or severely damaged — 17 percent of all local infrastructure.

An AP photographer who flew over Padang Pariaman district in a helicopter saw several landslides in the area.

At Limo Koto Timur village, a giant section of a hillside was swept away and the remains of destroyed houses protruded from the mud. The ruins of other tin-roofed homes hung precariously over the edge of a huge crevice that was torn through rice fields and forest. Roads were gone and palm trees had been uprooted and swept downhill, leaving patches of brown earth where villages once stood.

El-Mostafa Benlamlih, the U.N.'s humanitarian coordinator for Indonesia, told the AP that 200 houses were swept away in Pulau Aiya. Aid efforts are "still concentrated in Padang area," with outlying areas still short of aid, Benlamlih said, adding that aid agencies would focus on restoring water, electricity, sanitation and preventing disease.

Deliveries came on C-130 cargo planes from the United States, Russia and Australia. Japanese, Swiss, South Korean and Malaysian search and rescue teams scoured the debris. Tens of millions of dollars in donations came from more than a dozen countries to supplement $400 million the Indonesian government said it would spend over the next two months.

On Friday, survivors buried under a collapsed hotel in Padang sent a cell-phone text message to a relative saying he and some others were alive. But, disappointed rescue workers were unable to locate anyone at the Ambacang hotel where as many as 200 people were staying.

After several hours of digging through blocks of concrete, steel and bricks, rescue workers gave up. Padang police chief Col. Boy Rafli Amar told reporters, "So far rescuers have found nothing."
Hidehiro Murase, head of a Japanese search dog team, said its search had been fruitless.

"We did an extensive search this morning, but there were no signs of life. Our dogs are trained to smell for living people, not the dead, and they didn't sense anything," he told the AP.

The U.N. said there are sufficient fuel stocks in the area for four days, but with the road to a major depot cut off by landslides gasoline prices had jumped six-fold.

Areas with "huge levels of damage to infrastructure were in need of basic food and tents for temporary shelter," it said.

Wednesday's quake originated on the same fault line that spawned the 2004 Asian tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen nations.
___
Associated Press photographer Dita Alangkara in Padang and writers Ali Kotarumalos, Anthony Deutsch, Niniek Karmini and Vijay Joshi in Jakarta contributed to this report.

Nota:

1. Dipetik dari Yahoo News

2. Sebahagian dari fenomena akhir zaman, ingatan bagi yang lupa

3. Al-fatihah

Indonesian quake toll at 1,100, thousands missing

By IRWAN FIRDAUS, Associated Press Writer Irwan Firdaus, Associated Press Writer – 18 mins ago

PADANG, Indonesia – As rescue workers searched for survivors in the wreckage of a four-story school Thursday, Mira Utami's mother clawed away, too — looking for the shoes missing from her daughter's body. Mira was taking a high school English final when the quake hit, flattening the school in seconds and killing her a week before her 16th birthday.

"We had planned to celebrate ... but she's gone," said her mother, Malina, weeping amid the wreckage where the barefoot body was found.

John Holmes, the U.N.'s humanitarian chief, set the death toll at 1,100, and the number was expected to grow. Government figures put the number of dead at 777, with at least 440 people seriously injured.

Wednesday's 7.6-magnitude earthquake started at sea and quickly rippled through Sumatra, the westernmost island in the Indonesian archipelago.

An eerie quiet settled over Padang late Thursday as workers called off search efforts for the night. Thousands are thought trapped under shattered buildings in the city of 900,000, raising fears of a significantly higher death toll when the debris is cleared.

"Let's not underestimate. Let's be prepared for the worst," President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in the capital, Jakarta, before flying to Padang, a coastal city and West Sumatra province's capital.

President Barack Obama, who spent part of his childhood in Indonesia, pledged to support earthquake recovery efforts there as well as providing assistance in the South Pacific countries of Samoa and American Samoa, which were hit by a deadly tsunami Tuesday.

Most of the confirmed deaths in Indonesia were reported in Padang where more than 500 buildings were severely damaged or flattened.

Where a mall once stood was a heap of concrete slabs layered like pancakes with iron rods jutting out. Police and army rescue teams used bulldozers, backhoes and electric drills to clear the wreckage in intermittent rain, or climbed the hills of rubble to dislodge pieces of concrete with bare hands.

Relatives of the missing gathered outside ruined buildings, hoping to hear good news. But mostly, the rescuers found bodies.

Occasionally, they saved lives.

A Singaporean, John Lee, was pulled alive from the Maryani hotel after surviving under the rubble for 25 hours. Rescue workers, responding to his cries for help, dug for 12 hours to free him. Lee suffered only a broken leg.

One of the hospitals in the town had collapsed completely while the state-run Djamil Hospital was partly damaged — its walls cracked and windows broken. Staff at the hospital treated the injured in tents set up in the open. In another area, rows of yellow body bags were laid out in rows.

Mira, a sophomore, was taking an end-of-term English exam along with dozens of classmates at the Indonesia-America Institute when the ground shook so severely that the tremors were felt in neighboring Malaysia and Singapore.

Her father Zul rushed to the school, but it was already a heap of concrete when he got there. Still, he pulled at the slabs and managed to save two other children and an adult, his wife said.
She said rescuers found their daughter's body much later, but her feet were bare.

"We are in a shock," sobbed Malina, wearing her daughter's brown veil and seeking other items to keep her connected to the girl. "We had planned to celebrate Utami's 16th birthday on Oct. 7. Now I don't know what we will do."

Zul was more philosophical. "I regret I couldn't save her," he said, "but I have to accept that as her destiny."

The school building's construction was typical of the region, which is located in one of the poorest countries in the world. Most buildings are not made to withstand earthquakes, and even the tough ones were badly damaged in an earthquake in 2007.

There is virtually no enforcement of building regulations in Indonesia, a nation of 235 million people prone to natural and man-made disasters.

Indonesia sits on a major geological fault zone and experiences dozens of quakes every year. A 6.8 magnitude quake shook Sumatra on Thursday but there were no reports of deaths. Both quakes originated on the fault line that spawned the 2004 Asian tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen nations.

Wednesday's quake was the deadliest since May 2006, when more than 3,000 people died in the city of Yugyakarta.

SurfAid, a New Zealand-based medical aid group, said its program director, David Lange, narrowly escaped death when he fled the Ambacang Hotel in Padang just minutes before it collapsed. At least 80 people were missing in the five-story hotel, paramedics said.

"People are trapped and screaming for help but they are below huge slabs which will take heavy equipment to move," Lange was quoted as saying in a statement by SurfAid.

"I saw dozens of the biggest buildings collapsed in town. Most of the damage is concentrated in the commercial center market, which was fully packed," he said.

Finance minister Sri Mulyani said the government has allocated $25 million for a two-month emergency response. She said the earthquake will seriously affect Indonesia's economic growth, because West Sumatra is a main producer of crude palm oil.

"This region has been damaged seriously, including its infrastructure," Mulyani said.

___
Associated Press writers Ali Kotarumalos and Niniek Karmini in Jakarta contributed to this report.

Nota:

1. Source - Yahoo News, Associate Press

2. Sejauh mana kesediaan fizikal dan mental kita untuk menghadapi bencana alam?

At Least 20 Killed In Floods in Istanbul

Thusday- The heaviest rainfall in at least 80 years sent flash floods barreling across a major highway and into crowded business districts in Turkey's largest city Wednesday, drowning at least 20 people. Meteorology officials said about 5.2 inches of rain fell in the area.

Rapid population growth fueled by decades of migration from Turkey's impoverished rural regions has meant that Istanbul, a metropolis of 15 million, has developed without adequate infrastructure to handle even moderate rainfall.

"The rains are not able to reach the sea through natural channels due to skewed and unplanned development," said Filiz Demirayak of the World Wildlife Fund.

-- Associated Press

Nota: Setiap pembangunan perlu mengambilkira aspek keselamatan jangka-panjang. Sumber-Washington Post

Gempa Bumi

AP – A boy who was injured in the earthquake reacts at a hospital in Tasikmalaya, West Java, Indonesia

By IRWIN FEDRIANSYAH, Associated Press Writer Irwin Fedriansyah, Associated Press Writer

CIKANGKARENG, Indonesia – Rescuers dug through rocks and debris with their bare hands Thursday in search of dozens of villagers believed buried in a landslide triggered by a strong Indonesian earthquake that killed at least 46 people and damaged thousands of buildings.


At least 110 people were hospitalized with injuries from the 7.0 magnitude quake just off the coast of densely populated Java island, Disaster Management Agency spokesman Priyadi Kardono said, adding that 10 were in critical condition.


The earthquake Wednesday afternoon caused destruction across West Java province, where more than 18,300 homes and offices were listed as damaged, around 9,000 of them seriously, Kardono said. At least 5,300 people were forced into temporary shelters, he said.


Some rural areas could not be reached by telephone and there may be more victims and damage, officials said.


Many of the deaths and injuries were caused by falling debris or collapsed walls and roofs.
In the village of Cikangkareng in Cianjur district, a landslide buried a row of homes under tons of rock and mud. At least 13 bodies were recovered and villagers were searching for dozens of people believed missing, Kardono said.

"Everything is gone, my wife, my old father-in-law and my house ... now I just hope to find the bodies of my family," farmer Ahmad Suhana, 34, said as he pried at giant stones with a crowbar.
Heavy digging equipment had not reached the remote village, which President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was to visit later Thursday. Police, military personnel and villagers used their hands.
Maskana Sumitra, a district administrator, said 11 houses and a mosque were buried by the landslide and estimated that more than 50 people were trapped and feared dead.


"The chance of survival is so slim ... but we have to find them," Sumitra said.


The prolonged shaking from the quake was felt hundreds of miles (kilometers) away on the neighboring resort island of Bali.


In the capital, Jakarta, 125 miles (190 kilometers) north, thousands of panicked office workers flooded out of swaying skyscrapers onto the streets, some of them screaming.


The Disaster Management Agency said at least 46 people were confirmed dead.


Dede Kurniati said her 9-year-old son was playing at a friend's house when the earthquake struck and is now "buried under the rocks."


"I lost my son ... now I just want to see his body, I want to bury my lovely son properly," she said, weeping.


Hospitals in towns and cities across West Java province quickly filled with scores of injured people, most of them with broken bones and cuts.


A tsunami warning was issued after the quake struck at mid afternoon but was lifted an hour later. Several dozen aftershocks were measured by geological agencies.


Indonesia, a vast archipelago, straddles continental plates and is prone to seismic activity along what is known as the Pacific Ring of Fire. A huge quake off western Indonesia caused a powerful tsunami in December 2004 that killed about 230,000 people in a dozen countries, half of them in Aceh province.



Nota:



1. Hargai insan yang masih ada

2. Adakah bangunan di Malaysia mampu bertahan apabila gempa-bumi berlaku?

3. Salam takziah buat warga Indonesia. Moga redha Allah mengiringi pemergian mereka. Al-Fatihah.

*Ambilan dari Associate Press di Yahoo News

L'Aquila

• L'AQUILA (Itali)


• Gempa bumi pertama: 5.8 dan 6.3 pada skala Richter, melanda sejurus selepas jam 3.30 pagi waktu tempatan kelmarin, mengejutkan penduduk yang tidur, meranapkan rumah, gereja dan bangunan lain di 26 bandar raya dan pekan.


• Gempa susula: 11.26 pagi waktu tempatan dilaporkan, 4.7 pada skala Richter


• 207 maut dan lebih 1,500 lagi cedera.


• Agensi perlindungan sivil meletakkan bilangan yang hilang rumah seramai 50,000, tetapi pihak berkuasa memberi angka 17,000.


• Beribu-ribu penduduk berlindung di dalam kereta dan khemah.


• Perdana Menteri Itali, Silvio Berlusconi - mengisytiharkan darurat


• Juruteknik makmal, Giampaolo Giuliani, berkata dia meramalkan gempa bumi itu menggunakan sistem direkanya untuk mengukur jumlah gas radon yang dibebaskan bumi. Laporan berita menyebut, Giuliani dipaksa menarik balik amaran umum dikeluarkannya di internet dan meminta maaf. Bagaimanapun, dalam temu bual dengan stesen televisyen RAI malam kelmarin, Giuliani menegaskan dia memberi amaran kepada pihak berkuasa dan tidak pernah memberitahu umum


• AP/Reuters

Sumber: Berita Harian