PADANG, Indonesia, Oct. 3 (UPI) -- Entire villages have been wiped out and thousands of people were buried beneath rubble in earthquake-ravaged Indonesia, authorities said Saturday.
In Pulau Aiya, a village outside Padang, rescuers realized 400 people who had been attending a wedding Wednesday had been buried alive, Rustam Pakaya, head of the Indonesian Health Ministry's crisis center, said Saturday.
"They were sucked 30 meters deep into the earth," Pakaya told The Independent, Great Britain. "Even the mosque's minaret, more than 20 meters tall, disappeared."
The United Nations and the Indonesian Red Cross estimated as many as 4,000 people lay trapped beneath collapsed buildings or the earth itself, and hopes of finding survivors dimmed. The U.N. said Saturday the death toll had climbed to 1,100.
But with so many missing, UN humanitarian chief John Holmes told CNN, "These numbers, I fear, will rise as more information becomes available."
A 7.6-magnitude quake hit Sumatra Wednesday with a 6.6-magnitude quake following on Thursday.
Morgues overflowed, and makeshift hospitals were set up throughout the West Sumatran capital of Padang, which has nearly a million residents, many left homeless by the quakes.
Telecommunications services are spotty, roads are cut off and many areas lack power and are filled with mud from heavy rainfall, Amelia Merrick, operations director for World Vision Indonesia, told CNN.
President Obama spoke with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono Friday after several unsuccessful attempts, to reach him, the White House said.
Obama got word on the devastation during a five-minute call.
He "offered, on behalf of the United States, to do everything we can to help alleviate the suffering and provide assistance to the relief operation," CNN said.
