2006年VOA标准英语-Victims Struggle to Rebuild Weeks After Indones

By Michael Coren
Jakarta
18 July 2006
 
Hundreds of thousands of people in central Indonesia still spend each night under plastic tarps - more than six weeks after their homes were destroyed in an earthquake. The government hopes to house about 1.2 million displaced people before the heavy rains return in November. But reconstruction¹ cannot begin until officials ensure new buildings will withstand another earthquake in this disaster-prone region - such as the one that struck only on Monday July 17, causing a deadly tsunami². Michael Coren recently visited Yogyakarta, which was hardest-hit by the May 27 quake, and has this report on the recovery process.

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Woman salvages³ dishes from wreckage⁴ of her house in Bantul district of Yogyakarta  
  
In the Bantul district outside Yogyakarta, piles of bricks and splintered beams line the roads. Scraps⁵ of clothes, packets of noodles and shattered bedroom furniture tell of life before the 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit the densely⁶ populated island of Java in May.

At least 5800 people died in the quake and 50,000 were injured - a far smaller toll⁷ than that inflicted⁸ on Indonesia's Aceh province by the 2004 earthquake and tsunami. But the tremors⁹ here toppled more than 150,000 homes, leaving 1.2 million people without housing - a far greater number than in Aceh. And hundreds of thousands of other homes need major repairs.

Here in the hardest-hit area of Bantul, Surawan, a 56-year-old teacher, has spent weeks repairing their shattered home for his wife and two children. Strips of bamboo form unfinished walls. Squares of battered¹⁰ plastic and canvas serve as a roof.

Surawan says he is rebuilding with anything he can find. Although he is unsure how his home will look or how long it will last, this is the best he can do.

The World Bank says it is the need to rebuild and repair all those homes that has made the May earthquake one of the most costly¹¹ in the developing world in a decade. The World Bank and the Indonesian government estimate full reconstruction will cost $4 billion - at least $700 million for housing alone.

That is a heavy burden for the Indonesian government, which also is coping with the effects of the tsunami and a 2005 earthquake on the island of Nias.

Help from overseas has poured in - volunteers, medical supplies, water and tool kits¹². Christine McCormick is the emergency coordinator¹³ for the relief group Save the Children. 

Elementary school student takes her final exam under tent outside damaged school in Yogyakarta  
  
"Things to a certain extent have improved," she said. "If you go around Yogya (Yogyakarta), you can see people are doing their best to get back to normal, rebuild their homes, getting on with earning a living. But there's still a lot that needs to be done."

The survivors¹⁴ are scattered¹⁵ across hundreds of square kilometers of rice paddies, forest and isolated¹⁶ villages.

"Mainly people are living close to their homes or what's left of their homes … and living in whatever they can make into some sort of shelter," she said.

George Soraya, a senior official at the World Bank, says blame for the disaster's price tag can be laid on the doorstep of the houses themselves.

"The earthquake was as damaging but it should not have created that much if the houses were of a good quality," he said.

Children collect bricks for rebuilding their home in Yogyakarta, Friday July 14  
  
Families in Central Java often build homes simply by stacking bricks atop layers of dirt. When the ground began to shake on May 27, the unsupported walls gave way almost instantly.

The government plans to subsidize new homes and enforce neglected building codes - so that new structures will survive future quakes. However, donations and government funds have been slow to arrive to fund the housing reconstruction.

Few believe government assistance will arrive from Jakarta soon. Muhammed Sulaiman, public works director for the city of Yogyakarta, echoed concerns from aid agencies that national rebuilding efforts have stalled for financial and bureaucratic¹⁷ reasons, as the government struggles to cope with the cost of three disasters.

"All I know is that it's not enough. It's a very small amount that is ready. This money is not sufficient for all the needs," he said.

The government and the victims of the quake decided¹⁸ not to repeat the practice seen in Aceh, where homeless people were quickly placed in temporary barracks often far from their homes. Instead, most people independently formed rough shelters near their destroyed homes, and now wait for aid to rebuild. Many recovery workers say they may wait for months before construction begins.

1 reconstruction   

n.重建，再现，复原

参考例句：

• The country faces a huge task of national reconstruction following the war.战后，该国面临着重建家园的艰巨任务。
• In the period of reconstruction,technique decides everything.在重建时期，技术决定一切。

2 tsunami   

n.海啸

参考例句：

• Powerful quake sparks tsunami warning in Japan.大地震触发了日本的海啸预警。
• Coastlines all around the Indian Ocean inundated by a huge tsunami.大海啸把印度洋沿岸地区都淹没了。

3 salvages   

海上营救( salvage的名词复数 )； 抢救出的财产； 救援费； 经加工后重新利用的废物

参考例句：

• A man salvages coal at a cinder dump site in Changzhi, Shanxi province China. 中国山西长治，一名男子在煤渣处理站捡拾煤炭。

4 wreckage   

n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏

参考例句：

• They hauled him clear of the wreckage.他们把他从形骸中拖出来。
• New states were born out of the wreckage of old colonial empires.新生国家从老殖民帝国的废墟中诞生。

5 scraps   

油渣

参考例句：

• Don't litter up the floor with scraps of paper. 不要在地板上乱扔纸屑。
• A patchwork quilt is a good way of using up scraps of material. 做杂拼花布棉被是利用零碎布料的好办法。

6 densely   

ad.密集地；浓厚地

参考例句：

• A grove of trees shadowed the house densely. 树丛把这幢房子遮蔽得很密实。
• We passed through miles of densely wooded country. 我们穿过好几英里茂密的林地。

7 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

8 inflicted   

把…强加给，使承受，遭受( inflict的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• They inflicted a humiliating defeat on the home team. 他们使主队吃了一场很没面子的败仗。
• Zoya heroically bore the torture that the Fascists inflicted upon her. 卓娅英勇地承受法西斯匪徒加在她身上的酷刑。

9 tremors   

震颤( tremor的名词复数 )； 战栗； 震颤声； 大地的轻微震动

参考例句：

• The story was so terrible that It'sent tremors down my spine. 这故事太可怕，它使我不寒而栗。
• The story was so terrible that it sent tremors down my spine. 这故事太可怕，它使我不寒而栗。

10 battered   

adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损

参考例句：

• He drove up in a battered old car.他开着一辆又老又破的旧车。
• The world was brutally battered but it survived.这个世界遭受了惨重的创伤,但它还是生存下来了。

11 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

12 kits   

衣物和装备( kit的名词复数 )； 成套用品； 配套元件

参考例句：

• Keep your kits closed and locked when not in use. 不用的话把你的装备都锁好放好。
• Gifts Articles, Toy and Games, Wooden Toys, Puzzles, Craft Kits. 采购产品礼品，玩具和游戏，木制的玩具，智力玩具，手艺装备。

13 coordinator   

n.协调人

参考例句：

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。
• How am I supposed to find the client-relations coordinator? 我怎么才能找到客户关系协调员的办公室？

14 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

15 scattered   

adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的

参考例句：

• Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来，塞进文件夹里。

16 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

17 bureaucratic   

adj.官僚的，繁文缛节的

参考例句：

• The sweat of labour washed away his bureaucratic airs.劳动的汗水冲掉了他身上的官气。
• In this company you have to go through complex bureaucratic procedures just to get a new pencil.在这个公司里即使是领一支新铅笔，也必须通过繁琐的手续。

18 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。