Village Deaths To Increase Indonesia Quake Toll [400 Wedding Guests Feared Dead]

AP Report ^ | October 03rd 2009

[Steelfish]

Village Deaths To Increase Indonesia Quake Toll 400 at wedding party feared dead in mudslides in rural area

Rescue workers remove debris as they attempt to locate victims inside the collapsed Ambacang Hotel on Saturday. Survivors buried under the hotel 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.

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.

[AndrewB]

Why is it always weddings?

[HiTech RedNeck]

Rescue workers remove debris as they attempt to locate victims inside the collapsed Ambacang Hotel on Saturday. Survivors buried under the hotel 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.

That would have to be a harrowing experience.

[Eagles6]

muslim wedding parties have a low survivability rate.