App link to quake relatives

PETER MARTINELLI

“Every night before they go to sleep they confess to each other so they are in good hands.”

Through social media, Ms Tinol learned from her cousinbrother Mangi Makeuse that he had lost his young daughters. They were crushed with two older girls when their house collapsed.

“The four girls were downstairs when the earthquake hit,” she said,

Another cousin was killed with his wife and two of three children when they were crushed by a landslide. One daughter survived.

Ms Tinol’s family are cut off in Mendi, the capital of the Southern Highland province and home to 50,000 people.

Aid and donations are being flown into Mendi, which is cut off by road from Moresby.

Ms Tinol has lived in Cairns since 2010.

She is planning a fundraiser to assist families in Mendi.