Earthquake Victims Vanish (from the Media)
Media moves on as Indonesia earthquake fails to achieve blockbuster status, while relief agencies offer more detailed situation maps.
Even as the casualty toll rose and Mt Merapi continued rumbling, US media lost interest in the earthquake in Yogyakarta & Bantul Indonesia. By 11:30 AM on Tuesday, there was one small headline on washingtonpost.com (linked to this AP story, but overshadowed by a post-Katrina story and column), nothing at nytimes.com and nothing at usatoday.com. Earlier in the day, USA Today provided a "donate now" link to the American Red Cross, but that, too, was gone by mid-morning.
The relief agencies are now providing maps that show the scope & details of the disaster and the reponse:
- The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs shows updated numbers of killed and injured by district in their Situation Map #3 (PDF 458Kb). In contrast to the tsunami, this disaster follows the usual pattern in which the number of injured greatly exceeds the number killed.
- The International Federation of Red Cross & Red Crescent Societies has a rather chilling map (PDF 230Kb) that shows the proximity of the volcano danger zone to the earthquake impact area. The yellow danger areas represent possible routes of dangerous lahars.
- The World Food Program offers this map (PDF 474Kb) showing population density and casualties at a level approximately that of a township.
- And UNOSAT has the most detail of population density and settlements (PDF 735Kb), a bit compressed but still reasonably legible.
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