Quake victims just emerging

PAPUA NEW GUINEA – A community worker from Mogulu in Papua New Guinea’s Western Province says some people have only just managed to walk out from landslip affected areas three weeks after the 7.5-magnitude earthquake rocked the Highlands.

There have been 125 confirmed deaths since the firs earthquake struck in Hela province on February 26, with ongoing aftershocks since.

Community worker Sally Lloyd said there was a lot of fear and rumour about the earthquakes and people were really afraid to return to their gardens.

Lloyd said many people were feeling flat and a bit lost as they looked towards the future, particularly with the aftershocks continuing three weeks later.

She said some people had only just emerged in border towns from the Highland area and they were stressed and grief-stricken.

“They were people who were stranded up in the Highlands and for them it was quite traumatic,” Lloyd said.

“We saw some very emotional scenes there of people crying and just looking out to the mountains where their loved ones were covered by a landslide and those people will never be retrieved.”

A police statement confirms the displacement of 35,000 people across the two provinces understood to be the worst affected, Hela and Southern Highlands.

A police statement also confirms the displacement of 35,000 people across the two provinces understood to be the worst affected, Hela and Southern Highlands.

Schools and health centres in Hela and Southern Highlands sustained significant damage. Most schools in the two provinces remain closed.

Police expected the death toll from the earthquake, its aftershocks and landslides, to rise once everybody had been accounted for.

Some main access roads had been cleared and work is continuing on other roads that remain blocked by major landslips.

- RNZI/PNC