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| Reeling from the one-two punch of a 7.5 magnitude earthquake and a tsunami that climbed up to 1.5 metres, residents set to scouring the rubble and the hospitals for loved ones (AFP Photo/MUHAMMAD RIFKI) |
Terrified residents in the quake-struck Indonesian city of Palu fashioned makeshift bamboo shelters or slept out on dusty playing fields Saturday fearing powerful aftershockswould topple damaged homes and bring yet more carnage and suffering.
Thirty-five-year-old
mum Risa Kusuma -- her world upended Friday by the one-two punch of a 7.5
magnitude earthquake and a tsunami that climbed up to 1.5 metres in height --
camped in her back garden and looked to God for some semblance of protection.
"Please
pray for us," she told AFP. "Hopefully, Allah will protect me, my
children, my husband, family and the people of Palu."
As rescue
workers struggled to reach remote areas and the vast machinery of the
international recovery effort geared up, the challenges for Kusuma and other
residents of this small seaside city of around 350,000, were basic and
immediate: Food. Water. Shelter.
Large
queues formed as citizens waited in the tropical heat for life-giving water,
and the basic sustenance of instant noodles.
Essential supplies have been constricted by a tsunami that mowed down shops, overturned cars and ripped up parts of a coastal road in central Sulawesi.
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Map of the
Indonesian island of Sulawesi, where an 7.5 magnitude earthquake
struck Friday
(AFP Photo/AFP)
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Essential supplies have been constricted by a tsunami that mowed down shops, overturned cars and ripped up parts of a coastal road in central Sulawesi.
The wave
pushed a tangled mess of corrugated steel roofing, timber, rubble and flotsam
some 50 metres inland. Elsewhere it uprooted trees and downed powerlines.
Some 24
hours after the quake hit, the city centre was a mix of collapsed and damaged
buildings, shuttered shops and cracked roads.
On a main
thoroughfare, crowds of residents-turned-looters used lengths of garden hose to
siphon petrol from underground tanks at an abandoned petrol station.
Anser
Bachmid, a 39-year-old father of one, told AFP the need was acute. "The
public here need aid -- food, drink, clean water," he said.
"We
don't know what to eat for dinner today," he said, in a morbid echo of a
discussion held every evening by families the world over.
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The wave
uprooted trees and downed powerlines (AFP Photo/Bay ISMOYO)
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As night
fell, the city was plunged into enveloping darkness, because of a city-wide
power outage which has also widely affected cellphone reception.
Just
outside the city, families huddled under makeshift shelters built out of
salvaged bamboo, tree branches and tarpaulins. Some cooked on open fires and
hundreds took up residence on a football field.
But many in
Palu have decided to leave. A steady crowd of trucks, cars and motorcycles --
weighed down with belongings -- could be seen streaming out of the city.
Routes in
and out of the city have fallen victim to landslides triggered by the quake,
reducing roads in some parts to single lanes barely wide enough for a car to
pass.
For many
residents trapped in this battle for survival, there is the added pain of
scouring the rubble, the detritus and the hospitals for loved ones.
"At
the moment we still don't know how many victims are still left under the
rubble," said Bachmid.
#UPDATE Nearly 400 people were killed when a powerful quake sent a tsunami barrelling into the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, as hospitals struggled to cope with hundreds of injured and rescuers scrambled to reach the stricken region https://t.co/Q8HiHFdg1y by @harry_pearl— AFP news agency (@AFP) September 29, 2018
Map showing the devastating earthquake and population density on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi pic.twitter.com/ZBoLzwBbQI— AFP news agency (@AFP) September 30, 2018
Heartbreaking scenes in #Palu as distraught Indonesians inspect a huge pile of corpses looking for missing loved ones; desperately hoping to say one last goodbye or deliver a proper burial before the authorities dispose of the bodieshttps://t.co/764LWoNbJq— AFP news agency (@AFP) September 30, 2018
