Foreign parties offer assistance for Mentawai emergency response
Antara News, Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Padang, West Sumatra (ANTARA News) - Several foreign parties have offered assistance for emergency response efforts in tsunami-hit Mentawai, West Sumatra.
The foreign parties were the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Australia`s disaster management body.
But a spokesman for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), Sucipto, said here on Tuesday night Indonesia did not as yet need foreign assistance to deal with the aftermath of Tuesday`s tsunami in Mentawai, West Sumatra, which happened moments after a magnitude-7.2 earthquake.
Speaking to the press in the presence of West Sumatra Governor Irwan Prayitno, Sucipto said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had stated the West Sumatra provincial and Mentawai district governments were able to conduct an emergency response without foreign aid.
Sucipto said joint rescue teams, made up of police and military personnel, Indonesian Red Cross (PMI), and volunteers from West Sumatra would immediately be deployed to Mentawai to evacuate the dead victims as well as survivors.
On Tuesday night, the death toll of the earthquake and tsunami in the Mentawai Islands was recorded at 112.
At least 502 people were reported missing and thousands of others had fled to safer grounds following the disasters, according to the results of a coordination meeting led by West Sumatra Governor Irwan Prayitno and attended by Mentawai district head Edison on Tuesday night.
Efforts to send relief aid to the affected area were hampered by bad weather in Mentawai waters.
By Tuesday night, only one ship carrying relief aid, volunteers and medical workers had headed to Mentawai.
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