Indonesian President Joko Widodo made a
second visit to earthquake-devastated Sulawesi island on Wednesday, saying
efforts to help survivors were gearing up and he was keen to see economic
activity resume.
Five days after disaster struck, time is
running out for anyone trapped under collapsed buildings, while aid workers
warned of increasing desperation in hard-hit outlying areas that have yet to
get any help at all.
The official death toll from the 7.5
magnitude quake that struck the west coast of Sulawesi last Friday stood at
1,234, many killed by tsunami waves triggered by the quake.
But
officials fear the toll could soar, as most of the confirmed dead have come
from Palu, a small city 1,500 km (930 miles) northeast of Jakarta, and losses
in remote areas largely cut off since Friday have yet to be determined.
Underlining a growing sense of urgency,
Widodo made his second visit to the disaster zone, putting on an orange hard
hat to talk to rescue workers at a collapsed Palu hotel.
"What
I've observed after returning now is heavy equipment has arrived, logistics
have started to arrive although it's not at maximum yet, fuel has partly
arrived,” Widodo told reporters.
Asked about efforts to restore
electricity, he said: "This is all a process. Most importantly, I've asked
the governor to reopen economic centres so people start to return to daily
activities, while the evacuation process continues, and later rehabilitation
and reconstruction."
Widodo, who will seek re-election next
year, called on Tuesday for reinforcements in the search for victims, saying
everyone had to be found. He repeated that on Wednesday, after inspecting what
he called an "evacuation" effort at the Hotel Roa Roa, where he said
some 30 people lay buried in the ruins.
"We'll
continue this process so all the victims can be retrieved,” he said.
At least seven cargo planes arrived at
Palu airport earlier on Wednesday carrying tonnes of aid, some bedecked in the
red and white national colours and stamped with the presidential office seal
declaring: "Assistance from the President of Republic of Indonesia”.
Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman of the
National Disaster Mitigation Agency, said late on Tuesday rescuers had reached
all four of the badly affected districts, which together have a population of
1.4 million, but he declined to give an estimate of casualties.
"We
hope the death toll does not rise," he said. "We're continuing rescue
operations but right now the team is racing against time."
'GOVERNMENT
MISSING'
The quake brought down hotels, shopping
malls and thousands of houses in Palu, while tsunami waves as high as six
metres (20 feet) scoured its beachfront shortly afterwards.
About 1,700
houses in one neighbourhood alone were swallowed up by ground liquefaction,
which happens when soil shaken by an earthquake behaves like a liquid, and
hundreds of people are believed to have perished, the disaster agency said.
Adding to Sulawesi's woes, the Soputan
volcano in the north of the island, about 600 km (375 miles) northeast of Palu,
erupted early on Wednesday but there were no reports of any casualties or
damage. Ash was not expected to disrupt flights.
But concern
is growing about conditions in remote areas, many of which have been cut off by
destroyed road, landslides and downed bridges.
Aid worker Lian Gogali said the
situation in badly hit Donggala district was very difficult. "Everyone is desperate for food and
water. There's no food, water, or gasoline. The government is missing,"
she said.
She said her aid group had been sending
in a trickle of rations into the district of some 300,000 people by motorbike. The national disaster agency has said tents,
food, water and sanitation facilities for more than 60,000 displaced people are
in short supply.
Police have done little to stop
outbreaks of looting. The government has played down the problem, saying
victims could take essentials and shops would be compensated.
The government has said it would accept
offers of international aid, after shunning outside help this year when two
major earthquakes struck Lombok island, south of Sulawesi.
U.S. President Donald Trump extended
condolences in a phone call with Widodo, State Department spokeswoman Heather
Nauert told reporters in Washington. The United States has provided initial
funding, deployed government disaster experts and was working to determine what
other help can be given, she said.
Sitting on
the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire, Indonesia is one of the world's
most vulnerable countries to quakes and tsunamis. A quake in 2004 triggered a
tsunami across the Indian Ocean that killed 226,000 people in 13 countries,
including more than 120,000 in Indonesia.
(Additional
reporting by Agustinus Beo Da Costa, Maikel Jefriando, Tabita Diela, Gayatri
Suroyo, Fransiska Nangoy, Fanny Potkin, Ed Davies and Fergus Jensen in JAKARTA,
Stephanie Ulmer-Nebehay in GENEVA and Matt Spetalnick in WASHINGTON; Writing by
Robert Birsel; Editing by Alex Richardson and Lincoln Feast)
- (Quted from CNNWorldNews)
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