ZCZC
BFF-17
INDONESIA-EARTHQUAKE-TSUNAMI
Aid pours into Indonesian city stricken by quake-tsunami
PALU, Indonesia, Oct 7, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Aid poured into disaster-ravaged
Palu on Sunday after days of delays as efforts ramped up to reach 200,000
people in desperate need following a deadly quake-tsunami in the Indonesian
city.
Planeloads of food, clean water and other essentials were offloaded at Palu
on Sulawesi island, where at least 1,649 people were killed when a powerful
earthquake and a wall of water levelled parts of the region.
Looters ransacked shops in the aftermath of the disaster more than a week
ago, as food and water ran dry and convoys bringing life-saving relief were
slow to arrive.
But the trickle of international aid to Palu and local efforts to help the
survivors have accelerated in recent days.
More than 82,000 military and civilian personnel, as well as volunteers,
have descended on the devastated city while Indonesian army choppers are
running missions to deliver supplies to remote parts of the region that were
previously blocked off by the disaster.
“They are in great need because the road is cut off and it’s accessible
only by air”, Second Lieutenant Reinaldo Apri told AFP after piloting a
chopper to rugged Lindu district, some 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of
Palu.
Tonnes of donations from Australia and the United States reached Palu on
Sunday morning aboard Hercules military aircraft.
A plane chartered by Save the Children was also expected to land in the
coastal city with emergency shelters and water purification kits, along with
another aircraft carrying a medical team from South Africa.
– Food shortage –
Teams of Indonesian Red Cross workers set up warehouses and fanned out to
distribute supplies across the region, where the double-punch disaster
reduced entire neighbourhoods to rubble.
But relief workers face an immense task.
Getting vital supplies to the affected areas has proved hugely
challenging, with only a limited number of flights able to land at Palu’s
small airport, forcing aid workers to take gruelling overland journeys.
The tens of thousands left homeless by the disaster are scattered across
Palu and beyond, many squatting outside their ruined homes or bunkered down
in makeshift camps and entirely dependent on handouts to survive.
In Palu’s central market, hundreds of people waited in line for essential
food items being distributed by soldiers.
“There is nowhere else to get food, nowhere is open,” said 18-year-old
Sela Fauziah as she queued for aid.
– Getting out –
Even as aid trickled into the region, exhausted survivors were heading in
the opposite direction.
MORE/MSY/1157 hrs
ZCZC
BFF-18
INDONESIA-EARTHQUAKE-TSUNAMI-2-LAST
Thousands have streamed out of Palu to nearby cities, many waiting days to
board military flights.
Anam was among 100 civilians at Palu airport lucky enough to board a
Hercules military flight on Sunday.
“I am happy to finally get a plane. I have been waiting for three days,”
the 33-year-old told AFP.
Hope of finding survivors has all but faded, as authorities moved closer
to calling off the search for the dead and declaring devastated areas mass
graves.
Muhammad Syaugi, the head of Indonesia’s search and rescue agency, said it
was unlikely anyone trapped would still be alive.
“This is Day 10. It would be a miracle to actually find someone still
alive,” he told AFP on Sunday.
There are fears that vast numbers of decomposing bodies could still be
buried beneath mud and concrete with rescue workers struggling to extract
bodies trapped in the muck, as the earth hardens in the tropical sun.
With hospitals overstretched and short on staff and supplies, medical
teams were yet to reach some of the hardest-hit far-flung villages.
“Today, my team and I want to go to Sigi, because that area has been
untouched by paramedics,” doctor Arsanto Tri Widodo told AFP, referring to
one of the worst-hit areas.
The United Nations said Friday it was seeking $50.5 million “for immediate
relief” to help victims.
Indonesia sits along the world’s most tectonically active region, and its
260 million people are vulnerable to earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic
eruptions.
BSS/AFP/MSY/1157 hrs