RACE AGAINST TIME TO FIND SURVIVORS
PALU: Indonesia is in a race against time to save victims of a devastating earthquake and tsunami on Sulawesi island, the Government says, as the official death toll passed 1400 and looting fuelled fears of lawlessness.
Officials feared the toll could soar, as most of the confirmed dead had come from Palu, a small city 1500km northeast of Jakarta.
Hospitals were struggling to cope with the high number of casualties amid shortages of power and fuel.
More than 2550 victims had been hospitalised with serious injuries and 113 were listed as missing
Some remote areas have been largely cut off after Saturday’s 7.5magnitude quake triggered tsunamis, destroying roads and bridges. That meant losses of life in remote areas could not yet be determined.
Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman of National Disaster Mitigation Agency, said rescuers had reached all four of the badly
affected districts, which together have a population of 1.4 million, but he declined to give an estimate of casualties.
He gave few details of the conditions rescuers had found, saying they were similar to conditions seen in Palu.
There has been particular concern about Donggala, a district of 300,000 people north of Palu and close to the epicentre of the quake, which only a few aid workers have managed to reach.
Nugroho said it had been ‘‘devastated’’ by the tsunami.
Mount Soputan in North Sul awesi yesterday erupted, spewing ash 6000m into the sky.
Among the dead were 34 children who were all killed while at a Christian bible study camp.
More than 65,000 homes were damaged and more than 60,000 people have been displaced and are in need of emergency help.
Thousands of people have been streaming out of stricken areas. Commercial airlines have struggled to restore operations at Palu’s damaged airport but military aircraft have taken some survivors out.
Many more survivors want to leave.
Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo made a second visit to Sulawesi yesterday to ramp up relief efforts, as survivors pleaded for water, food and fuel.
Underlining a growing sense of urgency, Widodo made his second visit to the disaster zone, putting on an orange hard hat to talk to rescue workers at a collapsed hotel in Palu.
‘‘What I’ve observed after returning now is heavy equip ment has arrived, logistics have started to arrive although it’s not at maximum yet, fuel has partly arrived,’’ Widodo said.
A spokesman for the main UN aid coordinating agency, OCHA, said humanitarian agencies were in contact with the Government and ready to help.
State port operator Pelindo IV said a ship carrying 50 tonnes of supplies including rice and baby milk had arrived in Palu on Monday. It was unclear whether the aid had been distributed.
Power was yet to be restored and aftershocks were rattling nerves.
About 50 people were believed to have been caught inside the the collapsed Hotel Roa Roa when it was brought down. About nine bodies have been recovered and three people rescued alive.
Outside Palu, trucks brought 54 bodies to a mass grave. Most had not been claimed, police said, but relatives paid respects at the 50m trench. — Reuters