A few days ago, I was blogging about the tombs of Imogiri, near Yogyakarta, in central Java, discussing them as the place I was at onset of Indonesia’s democratic revolution in 1998.
Today, those tombs are at the epicenter of the deadly earthquake in Indonesia, centered in Bantul. Hospitals are overflowing and more than 3000 are known dead in the first 12 hours, it will soar much higher.
I noted earlier that Indonesia has a lot of eerie coincidences. I just wish this wasn’t one of them. There are people I know there, and I am quite worried. I will have to try to reach them, this is too close to the Indonesia I know.
Source: AFP, via Yahoo!
BLOG ROUNDUP:
Harry Sufehmi at Harry Sufehmi says he’s all right, but got an email from a friend named Eko who lost two relatives. He went to the Yogya blogger community and saw only one post. He hears that communication has been badly damaged, and given the scale of the disaster, it might be hard to even want to blog. His post is here.
Shinta at Honeycomb who lives in Jakarta is busy batting off expression of concern, explaining that Jakarta is too far away from Yogyakarta to feel any earthquake in Yogya, here.
Bridget at GOP Vixen blames third-worldery for the high death count in this Yogyakarta quake. She might be right but in my opinion, she might be speaking too soon – the intensity of the earthquake is often related to how deep in the earth the temblor was, and with an active volcano going on nearby on Mount Merapi, it might have been quite shallow. That said, I do blame third-world concrete construction for this kind of death toll – the traditional Javanese wood houses were developed to prevent exactly this kind of quake damage – and Java is the world’s most densely populated as well as oldest continous civilization in the world. Those old wood houses were developed for a reason and it’s a shame hardcore concrete houses replaced them – they may look modern but they are not practical in that earthquake climate.
Carolyn at Solo Femininity says pray for Indonesia.
Hat tip: Real Clear Politics
Pastor K at Musings says his daughter was ok, a couple hours from the quake’s epicenter. He says it was so unexpected and the only thing you do is be prepared.
NEWS:
Jakarta Post has the latest earthquake news, plus photos, of the damage, alongside stories of the explosive new violence in East Timor, the ongoing volcano trouble, and new human-to-human bird flu outbreaks here.
Sploid has lots of news, linked throughout, here.
The Independent of London has some exceptional coverage, it’s the only newspaper that seems to recognize the historic treasures at stake and the importance of this royal city in Java’s history. Knowing the place, I am more upset at the loss of people but the area is a jewelbox and that’s important too. Read of its significance here.
CNN has a good story (probably by my friend described in my Indonesia post linked above) and a photo gallery here.