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More Quakes Slam Indonesia, Still Counting Its Dead
Witness describes crumbled, burning wreckage in Padang
By W. McCahill
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Posted Sep 30, 09 9:25 PM CDT
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(Newser)
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Indonesia, still counting the dead and searching for the missing from yesterday’s 7.6 earthquake, was rattled by two more earthquakes this morning local time. The US Geological Survey recorded a 6.8 quake 140 miles from Padang, the western Sumatran city nearest yesterday’s epicenter; just 20 minutes earlier, a 5.2 roller struck on the far eastern side of the archipelago.
Earlier, officials told Reuters the death toll was approaching 200, but many more remain trapped under rubble, particularly in Padang, a city of 900,000. “The big buildings are down. The concrete buildings are all down, the hospitals, the main markets, down and burned,” one witness tells an Australian radio station.