Canada offers $100,000 in aid to victims of Indonesian disasters

OTTAWA—Ottawa says it will provide humanitarian support to those affected by the recent natural disasters in Indonesia.

International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda announced today the government would offer $100,000 to the International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC) and Red Crescent Societies.

The money will go to providing non-food emergency supplies to some of those affected by the recent volcanic eruptions and earthquake.

Indonesia’s Mount Merapi volcano began erupting October 25, killing 138 people and displacing more than 100,000.

On the same day, a strong earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra island, triggering a tsunami and killing no less than 449 people and displacing some 15,000.

Indonesia is one of Canada’s countries of focus in Asia and in 2008-2009, the Canadian International Development Agency contributed $79.32 million in development assistance to Indonesia.

Indonesia Disaster Survivors Get Aid as Planes, Vessels Arrive

October 28 (Bloomberg) -- Tsunami survivors in Indonesia’s remote west will receive tents, medicine and other supplies today, and aid workers are feeding and providing necessities to evacuees from a volcanic eruption on another island.

The number of missing after the October 25 tsunami that hit the Mentawai Islands off the west coast of Sumatra fell to 378 from 400 as rescuers found people alive, Harmensyah, head of the West Sumatra Regional Disaster Management Agency, said by telephone today. The death toll remained at 311, he said.

“Today we will send food and supplies to the areas by Hercules,” Ferry Faisal, an official at the Sumatra agency, said by phone, referring to the Lockheed Martin Corp. C-130 transport plane. “We will drop them from the air as this is the fastest way to reach them while we’re also preparing to send clothes, medicines and tents by vessel.”

In Central Java, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) east of Jakarta, Red Cross Indonesia workers are treating people who were burned or otherwise injured after the Mount Merapi volcano erupted three times October 26, spewing superheated ash.

Indonesia disaster death toll rises

A volcanic eruption and a tsunami have killed scores of people hundreds of miles apart in Indonesia - reactions from the Pacific "Ring of Fire" which spawns disasters from deep within the Earth.

The eruption of Mount Merapi on Tuesday killed at least 25 people, forced thousands to flee down its slopes and spewed burning ash and smoke high into the air on the island of Java.

Meanwhile, off the coast of Sumatra, about 800 miles west of the volcano, rescuers battled rough seas to reach the remote Mentawai islands, where a 10ft tsunami triggered by an earthquake swept away hundreds of homes, killing at least 113 villagers, said the health ministry's crisis centre. Up to 500 others are missing.

The twin disasters happened hours apart in one of the most seismically active regions on the planet.

Scientists have warned that pressure building beneath Merapi's lava dome could trigger its most powerful explosion in years. But Gede Swantika, a government volcanologist, expressed hope the 9,737ft mountain, which sent rocks and debris cascading down its southern slope, could be releasing steam slowly.