Aussie rescue teams head to Indonesia

Australia's disaster expertise has been deployed to the deadly Indonesian earthquake
zone only days after help was sent across the Pacific to help victims in Samoa.
Australia sent two RAAF transport aircraft to Sumatra on Friday following a request
from Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
A floating hospital ship carrying a Sea King helicopter is due to set sail for the
quake area on Saturday.
The Queensland government has also sent its own team of paramedics and disaster
experts.
A 7.6-magnitude quake toppled buildings and sparked fires in the Sumatran capital
Padang on Wednesday.
The official death toll of 1,100 is expected to keep on rising.
Indonesia is coping with this tragedy only a month after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake
off the coast of Java caused fatal landslides.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said while no Australians were among the
injured in Sumatra, 60 people still remained unaccounted for.
"Officials are working around the clock to confirm the safety and wellbeing of the
remaining Australians thought to be in Sumatra," Mr Rudd told reporters.
Australian relief supplies in Indonesia would be given to the Red Cross for medical
and shelter needs, Mr Rudd said.
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said more deaths were likely to be recorded.
"The scale of this disaster is only now becoming apparent," he told ABC Television
on Friday.
Three days after a 8.0 magnitude quake shook Samoa, killing at least 150 people
including four Australians, chief of the Defence Force Air Chief Marshal Angus
Houston said Australia was busy on two fronts.
"So fundamentally we are very focused on both locations. The weight of effort is
swinging towards Sumatra," he told ABC Radio.
A C-17 RAAF transport aircraft, carrying a 44-member search and rescue team from
Brisbane, was due to arrive in Jakarta on Friday afternoon.
Several hours later, 10 Australian Defence Force engineers and eight AusAID
commanders left Darwin for Indonesia aboard a C-130 Hercules.
HMAS Kanimbla is expected to leave Sydney this weekend bound for the coastline off
Padang, via Darwin.
Air Chief Marshal Houston, however, said he wished the ship carrying health
professionals and relief supplies could arrive sooner.
"The negative is it takes quite a long time to get there. It will be about another
10 days before it is off the coast of Sumatra," he said.
The Queensland government has also pitched in, sending a 40-strong team comprising
paramedics, a doctor and disaster zone experts.
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said an engineer, a mechanic and a hazardous materials
expert would also be in Sumatra for a week, before being replaced if more work
needed to be done.
"The relief and recovery effort is likely to take many, many months," she told
reporters.
"We will be ensuring that we continue to deploy people."
Australia is working with New Zealand, France and the US to coordinate the most
effective response to the Samoa tsunami.
Australia has already sent three RAAF transport aircraft there and is also
responding to requests from Tonga for emergency supplies, following a quake in the
other Pacific island on Friday.
A powerful 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck in the seas off Tonga and the Samoan
islands but no immediate tsunami alert was issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning
Centre in Hawaii.
Australian experts said the tremor was likely too small to create another deadly wave.