More Quakes Slam Indonesia, Still Counting Its Dead

Indonesia, still counting the dead and searching for the missing from yesterday’s 7.6 earthquake, was rattled by two more earthquakes this morning local time. The US Geological Survey recorded a 6.8 quake 140 miles from Padang, the western Sumatran city nearest yesterday’s epicenter; just 20 minutes earlier, a 5.2 roller struck on the far eastern side of the archipelago.

Earlier, officials told Reuters the death toll was approaching 200, but many more remain trapped under rubble, particularly in Padang, a city of 900,000. “The big buildings are down. The concrete buildings are all down, the hospitals, the main markets, down and burned,” one witness tells an Australian radio station.