Transcript
The Hela and Southern Highlands provinces have borne the brunt of the earth's fury, with about 145,000 people in the immediate area affected. The relief effort in the remote, bush clad, hilly region has been hampered by hundreds of landslides which, in some cases, have buried entire villages and dammed rivers. The Red Cross estimates the death toll at about 80 so far, but teams are still to reach some cut off areas. The administrator of Southern Highlands province, Thomas Eluh, says there are 35 confirmed deaths there, but that number will climb.
"There are quite a number of people that could be still buried underground at the moment and despite our efforts to try and retrieve the bodies it's quite difficult because of the magnitude of the landslips that have occured."
In Hela, the province closest to the epicentre, the governor says the region remains cut off from the outside world -- and supplies are starting to run out. Roads are blocked by collapsed mountainsides, and the airport's runway is ruptured. The governor, Philip Undialu, says helicopters have managed to ferry urgent supplies and carry out assessments for most of the province, but they need bulk supplies.
"We have a serious issue with the road blockage. Landslips are preventing us from bringing fuel supplies, food and medicine from Lae and Mt Hagen down to Tari. If the road is not cleared at least within the next two or three days, then we'll have a serious problem."
From the flattened provincial capital of Tari, where hundreds of residents are sleeping outdoors or in tents, Mr Undialu said crews are working on the main Highway to Mendi and the airport runway, and he hopes a supply line will be restored by the middle of the week. But the earth keeps rolling. Three aftershocks stronger than magnitude five shook the region on Monday, including a quake measured at magnitude six. Mr Undialu says that quake may have added to the devastation at Mt Bosavi, which is closest to the epicenter of last week's quake.
"We just got a call from one of the remotest locations, Mt Bosavi. The president of that LLG called us that an additional 10 people died last night. So we will visit ourselves and confirm."
Both New Zealand and Australia have sent aircraft with aid supplies, and aid agencies and PNG troops are slowly fanning out across the affected area. The national government has so far promised more than US$140 million for the response, but the Southern Highlands administrator, Thomas Eluh, says he's yet to see it.
"To this point we're still yet to get support from the National Disaster Coordinating Centre in Port Moresby, particularly in terms of funding and resourcing."
The earthquake could also hammer PNG's already frail economy, with the region home to the country's main revenue earner, the LNG project which pipes natural gas from Hela to the northern coast. Its owner, ExxonMobil, says there has been damage to its infrastructure, and the project will be closed for at least eight weeks.