BNPB prioritizing Cianjur quake victims' search for next 72 hours

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Head of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) Lieutenant General Suharyanto said his side was channeling all attention on searching for victims of the Cianjur earthquake for the subsequent three days.

"The focus of the active emergency response in the first 3 times for 24 hours is the search and rescue of affected residents. Running parallel, some 14 evacuation points have been established with public kitchen facilities, medical personnel, and adequate logistics," Suharyanto noted in Cianjur District, West Java, Wednesday.

Suharyanto and BNPB officials are still in Cianjur to be directly involved in disaster emergency mitigation steps.

He noted that as many as 90 personnel, with rescue capabilities and supporting equipment, including using sniffer dogs, were deployed to the search location.

"Today's search was in Sector 1 Cugenang Village; Sector 2 Rawa Cina Village, Nagrak Village; Sector 3 Salakawung Village, Sarampat Village; and Sector 4 at the Sinta sate stall," he remarked.

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Suharyanto ensured that the affected residents, whose houses were damaged, would receive funds until their houses were rebuilt.

Residents, whose houses were heavily damaged in the quake, will receive assistance worth Rp50 million, while Rp25 million will be provided to those whose houses had suffered moderate damage, and Rp10 million to people whose houses had sustained light damage.

“We will be waiting for the rehabilitation and reconstruction process, and affected residents will be given housing funds for those who can live at their relatives' homes," he stated.

The 5.6-magnitude earthquake, which occurred at 1:21 p.m. local time on November 21, was centered 10 kilometers southwest of Cianjur, West Java, at a depth of 10 km. No tsunami warning was sounded following the quake.

On Tuesday, the BNPB confirmed that 268 people had died in the earthquake and the number of injured victims had reached 1,083, while the number of people seeking shelter at refugee camps was pegged at 58,362. Meanwhile, 6,570 homes had suffered heavy damage, 2,071 had incurred moderate damage, while 12,641 were lightly damaged in the quake. Information on the rest is still being collected. 

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