The Indonesian government on Monday called for international help to take care of the results of a series of devastating earthquakes and tsunamis that hit the island region of Sulawesi, killing lots of of individuals.
President Joko Widodo “has authorized us to simply accept international aid to urgently reply to natural disasters,” government investment chief Tom Lembong said, as dozens of aid agencies and organizations lined up to offer life-saving aid and the federal government struggled to come back to terms with a situation of enormous catastrophe.
Indonesia’s disaster agency said the death toll from Monday’s massive earthquake and tsunami at 3 p.m. was 844, with nearly 50,000 people dead within the disaster. However, volunteers who collected data from Palu’s local hospitals alone put the death toll at no less than 1,193.
The disaster agency warned that the death toll could possibly be much higher as rescuers reach major cities similar to Donggala, the earthquake epicenter, which has a population of about 300,000 and is often a half-hour’s drive north of Palu.
“We have not received reports from the other three areas. Communication is still down, power is still out. We don’t know for sure what the effects will be,” Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, said at a press conference.
Together with Palu, located 1,500 km (930 miles) northeast of Jakarta, these districts have a total population of about 1.4 million.
Dozens of people were reported trapped under the rubble of several hotels and a shopping mall in the city of Palu, which was hit by waves up to six meters (20 feet) high after a 7.5-magnitude earthquake on Friday at dusk.
Hundreds more were feared to have been buried in landslides that engulfed surrounding villages.
Nugroho said the missing included five foreigners – three French, one South Korean and one Malaysian.
The chaos on Monday was also deepened by the Indonesian government, which said as many as 1,200 prisoners had escaped from three different penitentiary centers in the devastated region.
Justice Ministry official Sri Puguh Utami said prisoners had escaped from overcrowded centers in Palu and Donggala.
“I’m sure they fled because they were afraid the earthquake would hit them. For prisoners, it is certainly a matter of life and death,” she added.
President Widodo on Sunday visited a housing estate that was leveled by the earthquake where he was standing and called for patience.
“I know there are many problems that need to be solved in a short time, including communication issues,” he said.
Widodo said the ruins could be rebuilt as aftershocks continued to hit the region.
Footage of the ruined city of Palu showed a large number of homes, cars and trees crushed by the earthquake, with roofs and roads slashed and left at every angle.
We didn’t receive reports from the three remaining areas. Communication still doesn’t work
“There are an estimated variety of casualties on this area. Evacuation is difficult because many collapsed houses are covered with earth,” Nugroho said on Sunday evening.
Interior Minister Tjahjo Kumolo, asked on social media about reports of looting, said he had ordered authorities to assist people get foods and drinks and that companies could be compensated. One video posted on YouTube shows people grabbing boxes of supplies from a truck.
Television photos showed dozens of residents shouting “we’re hungry, we’d like food” as soldiers handed out rations from a truck in a single neighborhood, while footage from elsewhere showed people fleeing with clothes and other items from a destroyed shopping center.
The head of the state logistics agency, Budi Waseso, said it was preparing to send lots of of tons of presidency rice supplies to affected areas in Central Sulawesi.
Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said the federal government has allocated 560 billion rupees ($37.58 million) for disaster relief, media reports.
Indonesia, positioned within the seismically lively Pacific Ring of Fire, is well aware of deadly earthquakes and tsunamis. In 2004, an earthquake off the coast of Sumatra triggered a tsunami within the Indian Ocean that killed 226,000 people in 13 countries, including greater than 120,000 in Indonesia.
Questions are sure to arise as to why warning systems arrange after the disaster apparently failed on Friday. Nugroho, lamenting the decline in funding, said none of Indonesia’s tsunami buoys – one sort of instrument used to detect waves – had been operational since 2012.
The BMKG meteorological and geophysical agency issued a tsunami warning after the quake, but lifted it 34 minutes later, criticizing that it was too hasty. However, officials estimated that the waves hit in the course of the warning period.
Neighbors including Australia, Thailand and China have offered help, and Pope Francis, talking to 1000’s of individuals in St. Peter’s Square, said he was praying for the victims.
The European Union announced immediate aid of 1.5 million euros ($1.74 million).
Indonesia has the world’s largest Muslim population, but additionally significant concentrations of Christians, including Sulawesi, which is certainly one of the five most important islands within the archipelago.
Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse
