Indonesia death toll over 1,400
Time is fast running out to find further survivors after devastating quake
The death toll in Indonesia’s twin quake-tsunami disaster passed 1,400 Wednesday, with time running out to rescue survivors and the UN warning of “vast” unmet needs.
National disaster agency spokesperson Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said the number of dead had risen to 1,407 across four areas around the ravaged seaside city of Palu.
Authorities set a deadline of Friday to find anyone still trapped under rubble, at which point – a week after this devastating double disaster – the chances of finding survivors will dwindle to almost zero.
Government rescue workers are focusing on half a dozen key sites around the city – the Hotel Roa-Roa where up to 60 people are still believed buried, a shopping mall, a restaurant and the Balaroa area, where the sheer force of the quake turned the earth temporarily to mush.
At least 150 people are unaccounted for beneath the rubble, officials said.
According to the UN’s humanitarian office almost 200,000 people need urgent help, among them tens of thousands of children, with an estimated 66,000 homes destroyed or damaged by the 7.5-magnitude quake and the tsunami it spawned.
Despite the Indonesian government urging foreign rescue teams to “stand down” because the crisis was in hand, residents in hard-hit, remote villages like Wani in Donggala province say little help has arrived and hope is fading.
In Geneva, the United Nations expressed frustration at the slow pace of the response.
“There are still large areas of what might be the worst-affected areas that haven’t been properly reached, but the teams are pushing,” Jens Laerke, from the UN’s humanitarian office, told reporters late Tuesday.
The World Health Organisation has estimated that across Donggala, some 310,000 people have been affected.
Survivors are battling thirst and hunger, with food and clean water in short supply, and local hospitals are overwhelmed by the number of injured.
Officials on the ground said that while the government was now inviting offers of help, there is still no “mechanism for this to be implemented”.
Palu’s port, a key transit point for aid, has been damaged.
Signs of desperation are growing, with police officers forced to fire warning shots and teargas on Tuesday to ward off people ransacking shops.
Widodo, who faces re-election next year, insisted the military and the police were in full control.
As survivors pick through the shattered remains of their neighbourhoods, the death toll continues to rise. The Indonesia-based Asean Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance said that more body bags were “urgently” needed as fears grow that decomposing corpses could provide a breeding ground for deadly diseases.
Rescue efforts have been hampered by a lack of heavy machinery, severed transport links and the scale of the damage.
With power returning to parts of Palu Tuesday and phone networks back up and running, there were some signs of things getting back to normal.
But for most, daily life has changed beyond all recognition.
Indonesia sits along the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, the world’s most tectonically active region, and its 260m people remain hugely vulnerable to earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions.