Irwan Firdaus

Ratna Kurniasari Virgo, a 19-year-old student getting pulled from the rubble of her collapsed school in Padang on Friday. Officials fear thousands more still remain trapped in the area. (Photo: Roslan Rahman, AFP)

‘Miracle’ Saves Two Women Buried in Padang Earthquake Debris

Padang. Rescuers pulled two women alive from their collapsed college here, nearly two days after a powerful earthquake devastated western Indonesia, as cries for help from a flattened hotel spurred a frantic search for more survivors on Friday.

One of the survivors high-fived her rescuers as they carried her to safety.

The government said nearly 3,000 people may still be trapped under the rubble after Wednesday’s 7.6-magnitude quake toppled thousands of buildings. Paramedics laid out dozens of corpses, and the stench of decomposing bodies filled the air.

Some victims have yet to receive help. In Pariaman district north of Padang, stricken residents said they’d seen no rescue workers. Most structures there had been leveled, and people were using shovels and their bare hands to dig out bodies.

Against a grim backdrop of grief and destruction, rescuers found a reason to cheer: Ratna Kurniasari Virgo, 19, a sophomore studying English, and a teacher, Susi Revika Wulan Sari, were found alive under the rubble of the Foreign Language School of Prayoga.

Sari was extricated at 5:20 p.m., almost exactly 48 hours after the college crumbled in the 5:15 p.m. quake on Wednesday. She spent the time pinned down among dead bodies of her students. On Friday, she beamed and slapped the hands of rescue workers as they carried her away.

“She was conscious. Only her legs and fingers are swollen because she was squeezed,” said the institute’s director, Teresia Lianawaty. “Thank God! It is a miracle.’’

Earlier on Friday, Virgo was yanked out, also conscious, after a 40-hour ordeal of being trapped in the rubble.

With excited shouts and giving words of encouragement to each other, rescuers pulled Virgo hands-first from a hole drilled in the debris. Her olive-colored T-shirt almost spotless, Virgo was laid on a stretcher before being taken to hospital to be treated for a broken leg.

“She is fine, conscious and does not have any life-threatening injuries,” said Nining Rosanti, a nurse, at the hospital.

Elsewhere in the city, at the site of the former Ambacang Hotel where as many as 100 were feared trapped, rescue workers detected signs of life under a hill of tangled steel, concrete slabs and broken bricks of the three-story structure, said Gagah Prakosa, a spokesman for the rescue team.

“We heard some voices of people under the rubble, but as you can see the damage is making it very difficult to extricate them,” Prakosa said, as a backhoe cleared the debris noisily.

The voices were heard 44 hours after the disaster, giving hope that many lives could still be saved.

But as the first foreign relief teams made their way to the scene, Indonesian officials said a lack of heavy digging equipment was hampering the search. Heavy equipment and rescuers are our priority,” said spokesman Priyadi Kardono of the Health Ministry’s national disaster management agency.

Kardono said on Friday that 715 people have been confirmed dead and 2,400 hospitalized. UN spokeswoman Laksmita Noviera in Jakarta said the United Nations fears the toll could rise to 1,100. That appeared a conservative estimate. Kardono said nearly 3,000 people may still be trapped under rubble. It is the first confirmed government figure for the missing, suggesting that the final death toll could be in the thousands.

Associated Press

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