*KUALALAMPUR – The death toll from a powerful earthquake and tsunami inIndonesia leapt to 832 Sunday, as stunned people on the stricken island ofSulawesi struggled to find food and water and looting spread.*
The new toll announced by the national disaster agency was almost doublethe previous figure. Indonesian Vice-President Jusuf Kalla said the finalnumber of dead could be in the “thousands” as many regions have still notbeen reached.
“It feels very tense,” said 35-year-old mother Risa Kusuma, comforting herfeverish baby boy at an evacuation centre in the gutted coastal city ofPalu. “Every minute an ambulance brings in bodies. Clean water is scarce.The minimarkets are looted everywhere.”
Indonesia’s Metro TV broadcast on Sunday footage from a coastal communityin Donggala, close to the epicentre of the quake, where some waterfronthomes appeared crushed but a resident said most people fled to higherground after the quake struck.
“When it shook really hard, we all ran up into the hills,” a man identifiedas Iswan told Metro TV.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo arrived in the region Sunday afternoon tosee the devastation for himself.
In Palu city on Sunday aid was trickling in, the Indonesian military hadbeen deployed and search-and-rescue workers were doggedly combing therubble for survivors — looking for as many as 150 people at one upscalehotel alone.
“We managed to pull out a woman alive from the Hotel Roa-Roa last night,”Muhammad Syaugi, head of the national search and rescue agency, told AFP.“We even heard people calling for help there yesterday.”
“What we now desperately need is heavy machinery to clear the rubble. Ihave my staff on the ground, but it’s impossible just to rely on theirstrength alone to clear this.”
There were also concerns over the whereabouts of hundreds of people who hadbeen preparing for a beach festival when the 7.5-magnitude quake struckFriday, sparking a tsunami that ripped apart the city’s coastline.
A Facebook page was created by worried relatives who posted pictures ofstill-missing family members in the hopes of finding them alive.
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The disaster agency said it believed about 61 foreigners were in Palu whenthe quake struck, with most accounted for and safe.
Three French nationals and a South Korean, who may have been staying at aflattened hotel, had not yet been accounted for, it added.
Amid the levelled trees, overturned cars, concertinaed homes and flotsamtossed up to 50 metres inland, survivors and rescuers struggled to come togrips with the scale of the disaster.
On Saturday evening, residents fashioned makeshift bamboo shelters or sleptout on dusty playing fields, fearing powerful aftershocks would toppledamaged homes and bring yet more carnage.
C-130 military transport aircraft with relief supplies managed to land atthe main airport in Palu, which re-opened to humanitarian flights andlimited commercial flights, but only to pilots able to land by sight alone.
Satellite imagery provided by regional relief teams showed the severedamage at some of the area’s major sea ports, with large ships tossed onland, quays and bridges trashed and shipping containers thrown around.
Hospitals were overwhelmed by the influx of those injured, with many peoplebeing treated in the open air. There were widespread power blackouts.
“We all panicked and ran out of the house” when the quake hit, said AnserBachmid, a 39-year-old Palu resident. “People here need aid — food, drink,clean water.” – APP/AFP
