The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Desperation grows as quake death toll soars
INDONESIA: Areas hardest hit still to receive supplies of food, water and fuel, with many roads still blocked
Trucks carrying food for desperate survivors of the earthquake on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island have rolled in with a police escort to guard against looters as the death toll soared past 1,200.
Four days after the magnitude 7.5 earthquake and tsunami struck, supplies of food, water, fuel and medicine had yet to reach the hardest-hit areas outside Palu, the largest city that was heavily damaged.
Many roads in the earthquake zone are blocked and communications lines are down.
“We feel like we are stepchildren here because all the help is going to Palu,” said Mohamad Taufik, 38, from the town of Donggala, where five of his relatives are still missing.
“There are many young children here who are hungry and sick but there is no milk or medicine.”
The death toll reached 1,234, national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said in Jakarta, the capital.
Hundreds of other people were injured and scores of uncounted bodies could still be buried in collapsed buildings in Sigi and Balaroa under quicksand-like mud caused by Friday’s quake.
More than 25 countries have offered assistance after Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo appealed for international help.
Little of that, however, has arrived in the quake zone and increasingly desperate residents grabbed food and fuel from damaged shops and begged for help.
An aircraft carrying 12,000 litres of fuel had arrived and trucks with food were on the way with police escorts to guard against looters.
Many petrol stations were inoperable either because of quake damage or from people stealing fuel, Mr Nugroho said.
The frustration of waiting for days without help has angered some survivors.
“Pay attention to Donggala, Mr Jokowi. Pay attention to Donggala,” yelled one resident in a video broadcast on television, referring to the president.
“There are still a lot of unattended villages here.”
The town’s administrative head, Kasman Lassa, all but gave residents permission to take food – but nothing else – from shops.
“Everyone is hungry and they want to eat after several days of not eating,” Lassa said on local TV.
Nearly 62,000 people have been displaced from their homes, Mr Nugroho said.
Most of the attention has been focused so far on Palu, which has 380,000 people and is easier to reach than other hard-hit areas.
Teams continued searching for survivors under destroyed homes and buildings.
There are many young children here who are hungry and sick but there is no milk or medicine. MOHAMAD TAUFIK