Survivor's Anguish: 'There Were So Many People Trapped'

Posted: 29 May 2006

Uncertainty hovers over the rubble of a village market, shattered by a massive earthquake.

by Craig Owen

"The juddering went on for a minute," said Ari Subowo. "It stopped and then we heard the screams."

Ari is standing outside the shattered market at Piuungan, a village about nine miles east of the city of Yogyakarta three days after a massive earthquake struck the Indonesian island of Java. The temblor killed thousands of people, ruined the homes of as many as 200,000 others, and destroyed the market that had occupied this spot for many years.

'They Had So Many Things to Sell'
“One hundred and fifty people had stalls here, mostly elderly women," Ari explained. “At five in the morning, like every morning, they arrived to bring their vegetables, fruit, dried fish. They had so many things to sell. So by six the market was full."

And it was then that the earthquake hit.

On hearing the cries of injured people, Ari had run from his home to the village and found the market destroyed.

"There were so many people trapped,” he said. “We were dragging them out from underneath the market. Walls and roofs were still falling. We were able to save many. But some we could not." He stares into the rubble in which 15 people died.

Hospitals Were Overflowing
Like other villagers in communities all over south Java, Ari was one of many locals who rallied to help survivors. Realizing hospitals in Yogyakarta were already overflowing with patients, villagers in Piuungan took their injured neighbors to Solo, about a 90-minute drive north of Yogyakarta.

"Now all is so uncertain,” said Ari. “People must live in tents. They do not know when they will be able to set up their stalls again, or how they will make a living now."

Oxfam has been able to mobilize help quickly in parts of the stricken region, delivering clean water, distributing tarps for shelters, and handing out essential hygiene kits. But it is the courage and character of locals Ari – and others who rushed to save the lives of many people in the first hours after the quake—that are an inspiration to aid workers now arriving to offer assistance.