The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Death toll in Indonesia tsunami surpasses 420
JAKARTA, INDONESIA — Just 34 minutes after the latest major earthquake to strike Indonesia, officials called off a tsunami warning. Aid agencies and others — still dealing with the aftermath of a devastating quake in August — breathed a sigh of relief.
What they didn’t know was, just about that same time, a 10-foot wall of seawater was tearing through the city of Palu.
Amid the roar of onrushing sea and terrified cries for help, the tsunami tore homes off their foundations, snapped palm trees and dragged away victims — some preparing for a beach festival. Bodies were later left on sands as the waters receded, and some were dragged out to sea.
More than 420 died in Palu alone, officials said Saturday as they began to take stock of the devastation. Among the dead was a young Indonesian air traffic controller who stayed at his post when the earthquake hit to ensure that a plane carrying hundreds of passengers took off safely.
The death toll was expected to rise significantly as rescue officials raced to reach another city, Donggala, and some settlements completely cut off by the quake and tsunami triggered by a 7.5 magnitude earthquake off the central Indonesian island of Sulawesi, about 800 miles northwest of Jakarta.
Indonesian vice president Jusuf Kalla, in an interview with local media, said the toll could reach well into the thousands.
Indonesian officials also may face another reckoning over why the tsunami alerts were pulled even while a disaster was roaring ashore, raising questions about the level of monitoring and postquake analysis in a nation along some of the world’s most active fault lines.
“People were still going about their activities on the beach, and did not immediately run,” said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency, who said that hundreds were gathered in Palu for a beach party. The number of deaths, he said, will “continue to rise as the search continues.”
Indonesian officials and aid agencies struggled with battered communications, destroyed roads and landslides. Even aid deliveries by sea have been a challenge since Palu’s port was badly damaged by the tsunami.
The second badly hit city, Donggala, remained inaccessible after a main bridge collapsed.
“We’re now getting limited communications about the destruction in Palu city, but we have heard nothing from Donggala and this is extremely worrying,” the Red Cross said in a statement. “There are more than 300,000 people living there. This is already a tragedy, but it could get much worse.”
In Palu, about 17, 000 people have been evacuated, scattered across centers in 24 locations.
Rescue officials will now have to deal with the impact of the second major earthquake in Indonesia in two months.
In August, a 6.9 earthquake and a series of strong aftershocks hit the island of Lombok, south of Sulawesi, killing more than 450 people. World Vision, a relief agency, planned to send assessment teams to Palu and expected to reach Sunday. But still had many of their staff in Lombok responding to the destruction and widespread loss of homes there.
“Our own staff have been affected and their own homes damaged. We are deploying in teams but at this stage communications with Palu, on the island of Sulawesi, is extremely challenging so we, like others, are grappling with understanding the full impact of this disaster,” said the aid agency’s national director in Indonesia, Doseba Sinay.
Palu’s airport was closed Saturday, its runway badly cracked from the quake, and so rescue workers have resorted to long drives through blocked roads and with the constant threat of landslides.
Yenni Suryani, country manager for Catholic Relief Services in Indonesia, said getting access to both cities is a “huge problem.”