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Palu tsunami: mass burials begin amid desperate search for survivors
Palu tsunami: desperate search for survivors amid difficult rescue conditions
(about 2 hours later)
Authorities in Indonesia have begun mass burials for victims of the tsunami that hit the city of Palu, as relatives of the missing combed through body bags for their loved ones and the search for survivors intensified.
Authorities in Indonesia have begun mass burials for victims of the earthquake and tsunami that hit the city of Palu, as relatives of the missing combed through body bags for their loved ones and the search for survivors intensified.
In a desperate attempt to stave off the spread of disease in the devastated region, Indonesia’s national disaster mitigation agency authorised the burials. It began with teams of workers, their mouths covered by masks, laying 18 body bags in a trench.
The death toll from the disaster rose only slightly on Monday, to 844, due to difficulties in reaching the areas worst affected by the quake, while the lack of heavy machinery made it difficult to retrieve corpses from the rubble. The casualties are still expected to reach into the thousands in the coming days.
At Poboya - in the hills above Palu - volunteers earlier dug the 100 metre-long grave, with instructions to prepare for 1,300 victims to be laid to rest. It was initially prepared for more than 300 bodies. More burials are expected to follow.
At Poboya, in the hills above Palu, volunteers dug a 100-metre-long mass grave and began filling it with hundreds of bodies in bags. Instructions were given to prepare for up to 1,300 victims to be buried, in order to stave off the spread of disease.
Willem Rampangilei, the head of the agency, said the mass burials “must be done as soon as possible for health and religious reasons”.
More than 540 bodies were taken to the mass grave from one hospital alone.
The move came amid the desperate search for survivors of the tsunami, which hit on Friday causing thousands of homes, hotels, shopping malls and several mosques to collapse. The wave, which reached six metres high in some areas, flattened the city.
Willem Rampangilei, the head of the national disaster agency, said the mass burials “must be done as soon as possible for health and religious reasons”.
The official death toll on Monday stood at 844, but was expected to reach into the thousands. Hundreds of bodies have been found on beaches and authorities fear many may have been washed out to sea.
The 7.5-magnitude quake struck on Friday, sparking a tsunami that ripped apart the coastline at Palu, on the island of Sulawesi. The quake struck as evening prayers were about to begin in the Muslim-majority country. A festival was also taking place on the beach in Palu.
“Many corpses are scattered on the beach and floating on the surface of the sea,” one local resident, Nining, told local media.
Jan Gelfand, the head of the Red Cross office in Jakarta, said rescue teams were having to find “creative ways” to try to reach victims in remote areas. It had dispatched 25 water tankers to the coastal area, but she said this was “a drop in the bucket to what the need is”.
“The casualties will keep increasing,” said disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, whose agency announced the jump in the toll from 420 earlier.
“Our teams took 12 to 15 hours to get in and so it is going to be a while before even the assessment is done before we get a true picture of the situation,” said Gelfand.
“Today we will start the mass burial of victims, to avoid the spread of disease.”
The disaster agency spokesman, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, said conditions in the Petobo neighbourhood of Palu were particularly bad because the quake caused a phenomenon called liquefaction, when loose, water-filled soil near the surface loses its strength and collapses, causing all structures built on it to collapse. “There are still hundreds of victims buried in mud,” Sutopo told reporters on Monday.
On Sunday, the Central Sulawesi administration declared a 14-day state of emergency. Sutopo said this would enable “both the regional and national government to mobilise personnel, logistics, equipment as well as money to fulfil the needs of the affected area and people.”
Rescuers were also struggling to reach Balaroa, where the earthquake has caused a housing estate, which was home to 900 people, to collapse and sink five metres into the ground. In the absence of rescue teams, locals were having to pull the dead bodies from the mud and a village civic leader, Rahmatsyah, said that “90-100 people have been confirmed dead, based on citizen reports”.
Rescue teams were yet to reach the region of Donggala, which has a population of 300,000 and was directly hit by the tsunami.
He told MetroTV: “It is estimated that there are still many more victims. Hundreds and even thousands of people are buried in debris which we cannot lift.”
Rescuers were racing against the clock and a lack of equipment to save those still trapped in the rubble, with up to 60 people feared to be underneath one Palu hotel alone. Rescuers said they heard voices and a child’s cries from under the rubble.
Among those trapped in the ruins of the housing estate was 15-year-old Nurul Istikharah. Most of her body had been trapped in deep mud and concrete for 48 hours, with only her head visible. The body of her mother, Risni, who died in the collapse, was trapped next to her.
A 25-year-old woman was found alive during the evening in the ruins of the Roa-Roa Hotel, according to the national search and rescue agency, which released photos of the her lying on a stretcher covered in a blanket.
Yusuf, Nurul’s father, has sat by her side since he found her alive. He told Tirto news website: “Everything went fast. The land collapsed instantly. I found my daughter was buried under the ruins and puddle.”
Rescue crews were also working to free a 15-year-old girl trapped under concrete in her house after it collapsed on her family.
On Sunday night, the Central Sulawesi administration declared a 14-day state of emergency. Sutopo said this would enable “both the regional and national government to mobilise personnel, logistics, equipment as well as money to fulfil the needs of the affected area and people.”
Unable to move her legs under the heavy concrete rubble, Nurul Istikharah was trapped beside her dead mother and niece in Palu. Rescuers struggled Sunday to control water from a leaking pipe, fearing the girl may drown.
Sutopo confirmed there would be no electricity in Palu and the nearby town of Donggala for at least another three days, while drinking water and fuel were running out. There was limited access to heavy equipment, so the search for people trapped in the rubble was mostly being carried out by hand.
There were also concerns about the whereabouts of hundreds of people preparing for a beach festival that had been due to start on Friday, a spokesman for the BNBP disaster agency said.
Desperate survivors, now facing a third night sleeping outdoors, queued for fuel and food. There was some looting of shops. Thousands gathered at Palu airport in a desperate attempt to get a flight out. “We have not eaten for three days,” one woman yelled. “We just want to be safe.”
Sutopo confirmed there was no electricity in Palu and Donggala, while drinking water and fuel were running out. There was limited access to heavy equipment needed to help rescue efforts, so the search for people trapped in the rubble was mostly being carried out by hand.
Sri Puguh Budi Utami, Indonesia’s prisons chief, said that 1,425 inmates have escaped from jails which were damaged in the quake, including those from the Donggala detention centre which was set on fire and all 343 inmates are now on the run.
In a post to Twitter, the disaster agency spokesman also warned residents to be alert to the hoax forecasts of further tsunamis and earthquakes he said were appearing on social media.
Indonesia’s president, Joko Widodo, promised more supplies. “We will send as much food as possible with Hercules aircraft, there are several aircraft carrying food from Jakarta,” he said on Monday. “We also expect fuel supplies to enter Palu.”
Desperate survivors, now facing a third straight night sleeping outdoors, queued for fuel and food and in some cases, turned to looting shops for basics as police looked on, unwilling or unable to intervene.
A justice ministry official confirmed a mass prison outbreak, with about 1,200 prisoners escaping from three different detention facilities. Ministry of Justice official Sri Puguh Utami said inmates had fled from two overcapacity facilities in Palu and another in Donggala. The Donggala detention centre was set on fire and all 343 inmates were now on the run.
Others searched body bags for their loved ones.
Dwi Haris, who suffered a broken back and shoulder, rested outside Palu’s army hospital, where patients were being treated outdoors due to the continuing strong aftershocks. Tears filled his eyes as he recounted feeling the violent earthquake shake the fifth-floor hotel room he shared with his wife and daughter.
“There was no time to save ourselves. I was squeezed into the ruins of the wall, I think,” said Haris, adding that his family was in town for a wedding. “I heard my wife cry for help, but then silence. I don’t know what happened to her and my child. I hope they are safe.”
Others have centred their search around open-air morgues, where the dead lay in the baking sun - waiting to be claimed, waiting to be named.
Indonesian president Joko Widodo visited the region Sunday afternoon, urging a “day and night” effort to save all those who can be saved.
Widodo said rescue teams were having difficulty recovering victims from the massive earthquake and tsunami because of a shortage of heavy equipment.
He said authorities were deploying more heavy machinery that he hopes will arrive Sunday night so emergency workers could help recover more victims on Monday.
Indonesian vice-president Jusuf Kalla said the final death toll in the north of Sulawesi island could be in the “thousands” since many regions have still not been reached.
Indonesia’s Metro TV on Sunday broadcast aerial footage from a coastal community in Donggala, close to the epicentre of the quake. Some waterfront homes appeared crushed but a resident said most people fled to higher ground after the quake struck.
“When it shook really hard, we all ran up into the hills,” a man identified as Iswan told the TV.
The 7.5-magnitude quake struck Friday, sparking a tsunami that ripped apart Palu’s coastline.
The quake struck as evening prayers were about to begin in the world’s biggest Muslim-majority country on the holiest day of the week, when mosques are especially busy.
“This was a terrifying double disaster,” said Jan Gelfand, a Jakarta-based official at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. “We have heard nothing from Donggala and this is extremely worrying. There are more than 300,000 people living there. This is already a tragedy, but it could get much worse.”
