‘Like a miracle’: 84-year-old woman pulled alive from rubble three days after Indonesian quake

An 84-year-old woman has been discovered alive in the flattened remains of her home three days after a powerful earthquake hit eastern Indonesia, authorities have confirmed.The 7.7-magnitude quake struck off Indonesia’s Flores island on Saturday morning, killing at least 73 people, injuring more than 900 people and displacing nearly 60,000 others.A landslide triggered by the quake had blocked access to Nitunglea village where Paulina Pobi, 84, lived, leaving the elderly woman buried for three days under the collapsed bamboo walls of her home until Tuesday.Sikka regency police Bambang Supeno told local media the woman had now been safely evacuated and taken to the nearest health centre for treatment.“Because she was paralysed, she couldn’t move or speak, so it wasn’t until the fourth day that her family finally found her,” another local official, Rudolfus Riba, told Agence France-Presse.“She is in good health; there were no injuries at all. She was just a bit weak because she hadn’t eaten or drunk anything for days.”“It feels unreal, almost like a miracle.”Rescuers inspect the ruins of a mosque that collapsed during an earthquake in North Lamba Leda, East Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia. Photograph: Firdia Lisnawati/APGrocery stores, petrol stations and other shops have begun to reopen on the island, but debris still covers streets and searchers continue to dig in the rubble for possible victims.Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency said 398 tons of aid, including food, tents, refugee shelters and donations from the public, have been transported to affected communities.But the distribution process has been slowed by Flores’ mountainous terrain and roads damaged by the shallow quake. The government has expanded the use of military aircraft, ships and personnel to support emergency operations in the remote areas, disaster agency spokesperson Berton Panjaitan said in a video statement.More than 3,000 aftershocks have been recorded since Saturday, at least 86 of them strong enough to be felt by residents, according to Indonesia’s geological agency.The tremors have made many too afraid to return to their damaged homes.Regional police chief inspector general Rudi Darmoko said displaced communities were traumatised by the disaster.“These refugees are not only physically injured, but they also have mental health issues that we must not ignore, especially for children,” he said.Indonesia frequently experiences earthquakes because it lies on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, a zone of intense seismic and volcanic activity that stretches from Japan through South-east Asia and across the Pacific Ocean.In 2004, a powerful 9.1-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Sumatra triggered a tsunami that killed about 220,000 people across the region, including about 170,000 in Indonesia.