Fears of massive death toll after tsunami
Towering wave strikes during preparations for beach festival
THE death toll from the devastating 7.5 magnitude earthquake and tsunami that struck the Indonesian island of Sulawesi last Friday could rise to thousands, the country’s national disaster agency has warned.
Yesterday, 384 people were confirmed dead in the city of Palu, where preparations for a beach festival were going on as a towering wave at least 10ft high barrelled into the coastline.
The terrifying moment was captured on a smartphone video that showed the wave crashing over and submerging one-storey buildings and cars by the beach as bystanders screamed and tried to run to safety.
The casualty count “would be hundreds, if not thousands,” Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman for the disaster agency said.
“Almost all the houses by the beach, shops, a hospital, hotels, have all fallen down. During the weekend they are all full of visitors,” he said.
In a terrible twist of fate, an estimated 1,000 people, many of whom remain unaccounted for, had arrived to attend a cultural festival, which was due to be inaugurated on the beachfront by the tourism minister.
“About 250 local security personnel were on standby, and the beach was already full with festival-goers when the earthquake struck. People tried to run away from the beach, but not so many survived. They were caught by the water,” said Mr Sutopo.
Sulawesi was hit by several earthquakes last Friday, including one of a 6.1 magnitude earlier in the day.
According to the US Geological Survey, the strongest earthquake, of 7.5, struck at a depth of 10km, 56km northeast of the coastal town of Donggala. Initial reports suggest it triggered an underwater avalanche that caused the tsunami.
One eyewitness, Adam, told the Kompas.com website people had panicked and tried to flee after the first earthquake hit. “After that, we saw water suddenly crashing, and finally there was a big panic. Not having time to escape, there was a bigger earthquake and suddenly the water rose,” he said.
Shocking images of destruction in Palu emerged quickly on social media, showing split roads, collapsed homes, mosques and supermarkets which had been crowded with people before disaster struck.
The most tragic pictures revealed partially covered bodies and the silhouette of a man carrying a dead child through the wreckage. Hundreds of injured were being treated outside and in makeshift tents in field hospitals.
But with communications and electricity down in much of Sulawesi, the full extent of the damage and loss of human lives remains unclear. Rescuers are still struggling to get to the stricken area and have not yet been able to reach the worst-hit towns, including Donggala.
The military is deploying troops to both Palu and Donggala but rescue efforts have been hampered by severe damage to the control tower and runway at Palu airport.
In an act of selfless heroism, Anthonius Gunawan Agung (21), an air-traffic controller, lost his life after refusing to leave the shaking tower because he was guiding an aircraft during take-off.
As his colleagues ran out of the building, Mr Agung calmly remained at his station to ensure the plane left safely.
According to Mr Sutopo, his last words were: “Safe flight, Batik Air, take care” as the plane soared into the sky, its passengers and crew unaware they had narrowly escaped a major earthquake.
Mr Agung died yesterday from injuries sustained after jumping from the four-storey tower as it collapsed.
Speaking afterwards to local media, Captain Ricosetta Mafella said he had been initially confused by the bumpy take-off as the plane was shaking left and right, but he had assumed it was the result of an uneven runway.
“I was focusing on getting airborne so I didn’t pay too much attention to the ground,” he said. As he ascended, Mr Mafella tried to contact air-traffic control and was perplexed to receive no answer from Mr Agung.
From the air, he noticed unusual waves rolling into Palu, but it was only later that he discovered he had made a dramatic take-off at the start of an earthquake.
Palu’s airport halted operations for 24 hours due to earthquake damage, according to AirNav, which oversees airline traffic in Indonesia.
Mirza Arisam, a resident of Kendari, the capital of neighbouring south-east Sulawesi, said his uncle and his family of five, including three children, were on holiday in Palu and he has been unable to contact them since the tsunami hit.
Some people took to Twitter saying they could not contact loved ones. “My family in Palu is unreachable,” Twitter user @noyvionella said.
Metro TV played amateur footage that showed large pools of water remaining from the tsunami, large cracks in roads and buildings badly damaged.
Tezar Kodongan, a resident of Palu who took one of the videos, told the TV station some of the city landmarks were badly damaged.
“There is no evacuation yet in the disaster area,” Kodongan added.
After the earthquake struck, television footage showed people running into the streets. Women and children cried hysterically in a video distributed by the disaster agency, which also released a photo showing a heavily damaged department store.
“It was so strong. The strongest I ever felt. We all ran out of buildings,” said Yanti, a 40-year-old housewife in Donggala.
“All the things in my house were swaying,” another Donggala resident, Mohammad Fikri, said of the earlier 6.1 quake.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said officials were in contact with Indonesian authorities and “stand ready to provide support as required”.
President Joko Widodo is scheduled to visit evacuation centres in Palu today.
Indonesia is prone to earthquakes because of its location on the ‘Ring of Fire’, an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin. In December 2004, a massive magnitude 9.1 earthquake off Sumatra in western Indonesia triggered a tsunami which killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries.