Dramatic rescues amid the rubble in Indonesia

Death toll tops 800 after earthquake and tsunami

Amid the horror of a magnitude 7.5 earthquake that triggered a tsunami in Indonesia, leaving more than 800 dead, came word Sunday of heroic rescue attempts in the rubble of a ravaged city.

A 25-year-old woman was pulled alive from the ruins of the Roa-Roa Hotel in Palu, a coastal community on Sulawesi Island devastated by the disaster and the focus of rescue efforts, Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency said.

Rescuers were also scrambling to free a 15-year-old girl trapped for two days next to her dead mother under concrete when her house collapsed.

Dramatic photos show a girl with dazed eyes, identified as Nurul Istikharah, reaching out to an emergency responder in an orange jumpsuit as another rescuer tries to lift her from the muddied water. Fearing the girl could drown, crews desperately tried to stop water from a nearby leaking pipe.

The rescue of the woman from the Roa-Roa was a bright spot for anguished rescuers. Some have been picking through the rubble by hand while they await heavy equipment.

Officials said they could hear voices begging for help Saturday from the remnants of the collapsed hotel and estimated about 50 people were trapped inside. Sunday, there was only silence.

“We are trying our best. Time is so important here to save people,” said Muhammad Syaugi, head of the national search-and-rescue team. “Heavy equipment is on the way.”

The death toll has more than doubled to 832 from the twin disasters that struck Friday evening, crumbling buildings, sweeping away homes and flattening communities. Most of the deaths so far are from Palu, officials said. The regencies of Donggala, Sigi and Parigi Moutong – with a combined population of 1.2 million – had yet to be completely assessed.

“The death toll is believed to be still increasing since many bodies were still under the wreckage, while many have not been reached,” rescue agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said. He said a mass burial would be held Sunday for health reasons.

Heartbroken family members peered into yellow and blue body bags lining the streets of Palu, a city of 380,000, in a search for loved ones. The community is built around a narrow bay that might have intensified the power of the tsunami waters as they hit. Waves were reported as high as 20 feet in some places.

Residents said dozens of people could still be buried under collapsed homes.

Indonesian rescuers try to free a 15-year-old earthquake survivor, Nurul Istikharah, from the flooded ruins of a collapsed house in Palu, Indonesia, on Sunday. Her mother was among those residents who died.