| “Our volunteers and staff were mobilized as soon as they heard the news and have been working throughout the night to carry out search and rescue and provide people with drinking water and food,” said Arifin Hadi, the head of PMI’s Disaster Management Division.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has also sent an assessment team to Pangandaran Beach, the area hardest hit by the tsunami.
The tremor and tsunami caused widespread panic among local populations.
“We felt the earthquake and then later we saw families moving away from the sea, screaming ‘Tsunami! Tsunami!’” said 39-year-old Pak Limin, who fled his Pangandaran home, along with his daughter, in search of safer ground.
Limin is now staying in one of many camps set up by local officials for internally displaced people. Indonesian Red Cross volunteers and staff from the International Federation are currently going from camp to camp assessing the needs of affected people.
Emergency needs in the region include drinking water, food, body bags and shelter for the displaced. The Red Cross is also distributing tents and blankets to survivors.
The British Red Cross has been helping Indonesia recover from a number of recent disasters, including the Boxing Day tsunami, which claimed nearly 130,000 Indonesian lives.
The epicentre in 2004 was in the northern province of Aceh where the British Red Cross is carrying out an extensive construction and livelihoods programme.
An earthquake also struck Java earlier this year, on 27 May, killing more than 5,700 people.
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