Quake death toll increases
RESCUE: AUTHORITIES SCRAMBLING TO REACH AFFECTED OUTLYING AREAS OF ISLAND
Among the confirmed deaths were 34 children at a Christian camp.
Palu
Indonesian authorities scrambled yesterday to get aid and rescue equipment into quake-hit Sulawesi island and prepared to bury some of the dead, while shaken survivors streamed away from their ruined homes in search of food and shelter.
The confirmed death toll of 844 looked certain to rise as rescuers reached devastated outlying communities hit on Friday by a 7.5 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami waves as high as six metres.
Accounts filtering out of remote areas brought news of devastation, including the deaths of 34 children at a Christian camp.
Dozens of people were reported to be trapped in the rubble of several hotels and a mall in the small city of Palu, 1 500km northeast of Jakarta, with hundreds more feared buried in landslides that engulfed villages.
President Joko Widodo told reporters getting those people out was a priority.
“The evacuation is not finished yet. There are many places where the evacuation couldn’t be done because of the absence of heavy equipment, but last night equipment started to arrive,” Widodo said.
“We’ll send as much food supplies as possible today with Hercules planes, directly from Jakarta,” he said, referring to C-130 military transport aircraft.
The disaster agency said later more heavy equipment and personnel were needed to recover bodies.
One woman was recovered alive from ruins overnight in the Palu neighbourhood of Balaroa, where houses were swallowed up when the earthquake caused soil liquefaction, the national rescue agency said.
Most of the confirmed deaths were in Palu, a city of about 380 000 people, where authori- ties were preparing a mass grave to bury the dead as soon as they were identified.
However, nearly three days after the quake, the extent of the disaster was not known with authorities bracing for the toll to climb as connections with remote areas up and down the coast are restored.
Of particular concern is Donggala, a region of 300 000 people north of Palu and close to the epicentre of the quake. and two other districts, which had been cut off from communications.
The four districts have a combined population of about 1.4 million. Aid worker Lian Gogali, who had reached Donggala district by motorcycle, said hundreds of people facing a lack of food and medicine were trying to get out but evacuation teams had yet to arrive and roads were blocked.
“It’s devastating,” she told Reu-