JAKARTA LIFE'S STYLE
Confusion and sadness were just some of the emotions felt by victims in one small village on Thursday, as search and rescue efforts to find those still missing after Tasikmalaya quake officially ceased.
At 4 p.m., all efforts to locate and evacuate the missing bodies from the 7.3-magnitude earthquake-triggered landslide in the village of Cikangkareng, in Cianjur’s Cibinong subdistrict, came to a halt.
The moment was marked with a mass prayer for the deceased and the surviving families.
“Let us pray so that their spirits lay in peace, especially those still buried in the landslide,” subdistrict head Wodi Efiana said.
Locals observed the prayers with emotion, as they paid their tributes and last respects to their missing relatives and friends.
For the last eight days, officials from the National Search and Rescue Agency and members of several university mountaineering clubs had found and removed 27 bodies. Members of the Siliwangi Military Command also assisted with the rescue, undertaking most of the hard labor, while West Java Police’s Mobile Brigade (Brimob) deployed sniffer dogs to locate the bodies.
It is estimated that around 40 bodies are still trapped underneath 500,000 cubic meters of earth and rocks. Most of the bodies uncovered were from the northern portion of the devastated area where rescue efforts were more successful due to greater accessibility for heavy equipment.
Nevertheless, bulldozers and excavators, loaned by the Public Works Ministry and private developers, had struggled to remove the huge chunks of solid rock, some the size of small houses.
The village is situated in a valley, at the bottom of 100-meter tall cliff. Most of the residents were fortunate enough to have been in their rice fields when the landslide struck. Those who were not as lucky did not escape the torrent of rocks and earth that swept areas as far away as one kilometer from the foot of the cliff.
The quake has left huge scars on the hearts of the survivors. Like in most small villages around the country, many people are related by blood, marriage or friendship.
Sofiandi said that he lost eight of his relatives, including his brother and his brother’s family, who are still officially missing. “I’m still hoping the search and rescue team will stay and locate my relatives. They deserve proper burials so that their spirits may rest in peace,” he said.
Endang, another survivor, shared the same hopes as Sofiandi, but added that she understood why the government had called off the search efforts.
“Looking at the condition of the landslide, I can see that it is impossible for the efforts to continue,” she said. “But if they couldn’t find my family and relatives I wouldn’t know what to do. I’d have mixed feelings.”
Most of the survivors have been evacuated to a refugee camp five kilometers from the site. Some residents feared another landslide may be caused by another earthquake or heavy rain and have chosen to remain at the camps rather than to return to their own homes.
“I hope they will just move us to a safer location,” resident Iman Nugraha said.
“The site is no longer safe and the water is polluted by the rotting bodies. Most of us are too afraid to go out at night because with so many undiscovered bodies, the site would most certainly be haunted,” he said.
“At least, we should just leave the site as it is, so that their spirits can be at peace.”
Despite the search effort being called off, the National Disaster Relief Agency and several non-profit organizations continued to pledge their assistance, and private donations have continued to pour in. With a glut of food and medical supplies arriving in Cibinong, given impetus by a recent visit by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the subdistrict has become the relief center for other affected areas.
The site had also attracted people from neighboring villages, curious to see the devastation and have their pictures taken.
The quake inflicted considerable amounts of damage to more than 11,000 homes, leaving more than 40,000 people homeless and living in camps in West and Central Java. Jakarta Globe
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