Article: Padang an eerie, tangled mess. Straits Times, 1 Oct 2009.

Padang an eerie, tangled mess


By Salim Osman, Indonesia Correspondent



Straits Times 1 Oct 2009

PADANG: The rain fell as if in mourning when I returned to this port city yesterday for the first time since the presidential elections in June.

Back then, the mood was ebullient as people and politicians plumped for democracy.

Now the journey from the Minangkabau airport proved eerie, sad and heart-rending.

Residents take pride in their Minangkabau heritage and that was reflected in the elegant peaked roofs of Padang's buildings.

Now, I found row upon row of those structures flattened, its contents a tangled mess of plank and concrete.

Plaza Andalas, a shopping mall, once the pride of Padang, lay in ruins. There were huge cracks and gaping holes where the quake had gouged huge chunks of concrete from its facade.

Taller buildings like the five-storey hotels, Ambacang and Mariani, lay with their floors crumpled like an accordion, trapping guests inside.

At least 80 people were reported missing from the Ambacang and many more from the Mariani were unaccounted for.

Government buildings and schools were also reduced to rubble.

There must have been students inside the buildings when the earth shook on Wednesday evening.

Parents milled about, some weeping.

But if such physical damage was hard to look at, the tales of human suffering were even harder to bear.

The scene at the local hospital, Rumahsakit Dr M DJamil, was chaotic.

Many patients were warded in makeshift tents pitched in the hospital grounds, near a block that had collapsed.

Relatives, volunteers, soldiers, moved about collecting names, offering aid.

Nearby, I saw more than a dozen bodies wrapped in canvas sheets outside the hospital mortuary, awaiting identification by relatives.

Haji Basir suffered severe injuries to his head and legs. From his hospital bed, all that the 84-year-old had to say was: 'We live in an area that is prone to quakes.'

Along a row of shophouses in Pecinan, the Chinatown of Padang, I spotted shopkeeper Leonardy, 56, and his two sons trying to move concrete slabs in the little that was left of his shophouse.

'I don't have much time,' he told me. 'My wife is trapped inside the building.'

When the earthquake struck on Wednesday, his wife, Theresia, 55, was trapped by a fallen cabinet.

The shophouse is next to a military post involved in rescue efforts, but Mr Leonardy said: 'I asked them to help rescue my wife but they appeared busy with other things.'

Another resident, Mr Basri, 47, was looking for his two sons and daughter who worked in a laundry store.

'When the quake happened, I rushed to the shop only to find that the building had collapsed,' he said.

As I watched him dig at the debris with his bare hands, he seemed resigned to their fate.

'It would be a miracle if my children got out of this place alive,' he said, as the rain pelted away.