The death toll from the earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia has risen to 832, with the fate of 1000’s more unknown

“When it got really bad, we all ran into the hills,” a person identified as Iswan told television.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo arrived within the region on Sunday afternoon.

Indonesia earthquake: Air traffic controller dies after staying in tower to direct plane

Aid was pouring into Palu on Sunday, the Indonesian military was deployed and search and rescue employees were doggedly combing through the rubble for survivors – searching for dozens of individuals trapped under one hotel.

“Communication is proscribed, heavy equipment is proscribed… it isn’t enough for the variety of buildings that collapsed,” Nugroho said.

The 7.5-magnitude quake struck on Friday and triggered a tsunami that devastated town’s coastline.

A destroyed hotel becomes the goal of a rescue operation after the earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia

Save The Children program director Tom Howells said access to assist was a “huge problem” hampering relief efforts.

“Aid agencies and local authorities are having difficulty reaching several communities around Donggala, where we expect severe destruction and potential large-scale loss of life,” Howells said.

Dozens of bodies lay in an open courtyard in the back of the Palu hospital, baking in the tough tropical sun, with just one constructing separating them from the open triage area on the alternative side.

“I even have one child – he’s missing,” said Baharuddin, a 52-year-old resident of Palu, standing on blood-stained floor tiles.

“The last time I talked to him was in the morning before he went to school.”

The disaster agency said there have been about 71 foreigners in Palu on the time of the quake, with most of them protected.

Three French residents and a South Korean who could have been staying within the ruined hotel haven’t yet been questioned, she added.

Amid flattened trees, overturned cars, crushed houses and debris thrown as much as 50 meters inland, survivors and rescuers struggled to come back to terms with the dimensions of the disaster.

On Saturday evening, residents built makeshift bamboo shelters or slept on dusty pitches, fearing that powerful aftershocks would topple damaged homes and cause much more carnage.

A C-130 military cargo plane carrying supplies landed at Palu’s principal airport, which had reopened to humanitarian flights and limited business flights, but only to pilots who could land by sight alone.

The long and narrow bay probably made the Palu tsunami more destructive

Satellite images provided by regional aid teams showed heavy damage at a few of the region’s principal ports, with large ships washed ashore, wharves and bridges destroyed and shipping containers abandoned.

Hospitals were overwhelmed by the influx of wounded, and plenty of people were treated outdoors. There were widespread power outages.

“People here need assistance – food, drinks and clean water,” said Anser Bachmid, a 39-year-old resident of Palu.

Dramatic video footage taken from the highest floor of a parking ramp because the tsunami hit showed waves demolishing several buildings and flooding a big mosque.

“I was just running when I saw the waves hitting the houses on the coast,” said Rusidanto, a Palu resident who, like many Indonesians, uses one surname.

The government’s disaster agency said about 17,000 people had been evacuated and the number was expected to rise.

“It was a horrific double disaster,” said Jan Gelfand, an official of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Jakarta.

“Indonesian Red Cross rushes to assist survivors.”

Photos showed the yellow double arch bridge collapsed, its two metal arches twisted as cars bobbed within the water below.

The disaster agency said a key access road was severely damaged and partially blocked by landslides.

Friday’s tremors were also felt within the island’s far south, in its largest city Makassar, and in neighboring Kalimantan, the Indonesian a part of the island of Borneo.

The disaster agency said as much as 2.4 million people might have been affected by the quake.

The initial earthquake occurred as evening prayers were about to start on the holiest day of the week, when mosques are especially busy on this planet’s largest Muslim-majority country.

Indonesia is some of the disaster-prone countries on this planet.

It lies on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where tectonic plates collide and plenty of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur.

Earlier this yr, a series of powerful quakes hit Lombok, killing greater than 550 people on the vacation island and neighboring Sumbawa.

Indonesia has been hit by a lot of other deadly earthquakes, including a devastating 9.1-magnitude earthquake that hit the coast of Sumatra in December 2004.

The Boxing Day earthquake triggered a tsunami that killed 220,000 people across the region, including 168,000 in Indonesia.

This article appeared within the print edition of the South China Morning Post as: The death toll from the tsunami may reach 1000’s