PADANG, Indonesia (AlertNet) - Rescue workers in the Indonesian city of Padang picked through the rubble of destroyed buildings on Sunday, hoping to find a few more survivors from an earthquake that may have killed more than 3,000 people.
With the stench of decomposing bodies hanging over the city, heavy lifting vehicles pulled debris from ruins while international and local rescuers carefully rummaged through the smashed houses.
Some wept as they worked.
The airport swarmed with foreign aid workers and Indonesians who had flown to the island of Sumatra - a 1-1/4 hour flight from the capital Jakarta - to help find missing relatives or colleagues.
"We lost 17 people," said one senior bank employer who was heading to Padang to help evacuate the bank's staff to Jakarta.
On the grass lawns outside the city's cathedral damaged by the double earthquake on Wednesday and Thursday, people prayed. Nearby, people queued up for essential supplies.
And the earthquakes stretched aid agencies already dealing with a cluster of natural disasters in the Asia-Pacific region.
In the space of a few days, a major typhoon had blown through the Philippines and Southeast Asia, killing 400 people, while a quake-triggered tsunami had hit the Pacific islands of Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga, killing 150 people.
Indonesia 's health minister, Siti Fadillah Supari, told Reuters by telephone the death toll could reach 3,000, adding that disease was a concern.
"We are trying to recover people from the debris, dead or alive. We are trying to help survivors to stay alive. We are now focusing on minimising post-quake deaths," she said.
Survivors begging for money and water lined the road leading out of Padang. In the nearby village of Padang Karambia, the earthquake had damaged all 257 houses. Almost none are fit to live in.
Wati, a 28-year-old resident of the village, showed AlertNet the remains of her home. The ceiling had caved in, destroying all the furniture and covering the house with dust and rubble.
"We had a lucky escape," she said. "During the earthquake we were all outside at a neighbourÂ?s wedding and that's why we survived."
At another village, the clinic displayed a list of about 30 people who had not been as lucky - from a one-year-old girl to a 95-year-old man.
One of the workers in the clinic, Hery, said that about 80 percent of the buildings in the district had been damaged.
"We haven't had any food except instant noodles for four days," he said. "There are lots of injured and we need medical help."
And it is a similar story further inland where rescue workers have reported finding entire villages obliterated by the earthquake and survivors desperate for aid, food and water.
Back in Padang, they started to dig mass graves.
(Writing by James Kilner in London)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
