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PALU, Indonesia – Reunited with her extended family under a large tree on the edge of a dusty football field, Veronika is one of tens of thousands of residents of Palu ho who are stuck in limbo.
A week after the powerful earthquake that destroyed entire villages and a tsunami hit this coastal region of the island of Sulawesi, the Indonesian government is now focusing on the mammoth task of cleaning up and rebuilding .
Both disasters caused damage estimated at $ 700 million and have already claimed 1,571 lives. Officials said rebuilding and rebuilding villages could take months, engineers and scientists to make sure new cities are better able to withstand frequent earthquakes.
For more than 70,000 homeless survivors and the many people who have lost loved ones, the most urgent and difficult task is to consider the next step.
Some invaded the paralyzed airport in search of coveted spots on flights outside the city. Others have joined caravans of motorcycles and cars heading south to larger cities.
However, most remain scattered in makeshift camps set up on open space. The living room carpets are now used as a tent floor. The cages of a family's pet birds were carefully tied to a rope between two bamboo poles. Those whose homes have not been destroyed say they are too scared to return, fearing that weakened structures will collapse, especially if there is a strong aftershock.
[‘I’m still in pain.’]
Many also know that they will depend on equipment and aids for weeks or more.
While Palu, the first city to be reached by rescuers and aid workers after the earthquake, slowly regained some semblance of normalcy, aid distribution points remained chaotic and unable to cope with thirst and hunger always acute.
In a relief distribution point set up in a local police station in Besusu district in Palu, hundreds of people have invaded the inner courtyard of the building in hopes of receiving water cups and pre-packaged instant noodles. Many in the crowd waited for hours and came from other more isolated areas, which had not yet been touched by help, in search of supplies.
"If we do not look [for help]We do not eat, "said Ismaina Sampole, 50 years old. Suburban residents receive no help unless you camp in front of the mayor's office. "
Vice President Jusuf Kalla, who heads the relief operations, went to Balaroa, a village like Veronika's, which was destroyed when the soil turned into a hasty mud, a phenomenon called liquefaction .
The people who once lived here, he said, would be transferred to other areas because it would be impossible to rebuild their villages. The government, he added, will devote about two months to emergency interventions, including the construction of temporary shelters for people who have lost their homes.
"Then after that, [we will conduct] reconstruction of damaged houses and buildings, "he said.
For Veronika, whom the Washington Post met for the first time on Sunday while she was desperately trying to get to Palu to find her missing family, the decision was made for her. His village of Petobo has been removed from the map.
"Where can we move?" She asked Friday.
Petobo, where Veronika has lived all her life, is not an option. The soil is too unstable, said her husband, Novrianto. When Veronika sees what's left of the village, she cries uncontrollably.
Veronika arrived at dawn on Monday at an air base in Makassar, south of Palu, to be transported in a military plane. The same night, she learned that her husband and children were alive and that her desperation to sit up grew. At 10 o'clock, she was told that there was none for her. She stopped a bus heading north, imploring the driver to let her board. The driver told her that there was no room, so she sat in the driveway for 23 hours.
Back in Palu, Novrianto took care of scratches and cut off his hands and face. He was in pain as he went out with his two children from their ruined house.
Outside the asphalt street was open in deep crevasses. The houses in the village seem to be turned into a "swamp," he said, and an electricity pylon was pushed so fast by the moving ground, Novrianto said, giving the impression that He seemed hunted down.
"Every time I tell this story, I realize it's really hard to believe," he said. "How could an electric pole chase us away? My neighbor was not swept by the water, but by the ground. If you were not there, you probably would not believe it. "
In addition to worrying about finding housing, Veronika worries about her two young sons and the trauma she may experience.
One hardly speaks, the other cries and mumbles in his sleep.
"Just ask him," Where is the house? He will say, "It has become a pool," she said of her eldest son.
"Or ask him:" What year are you in? He will say, "The school has been turned into mush. "
Read more:
In an Indonesian village, a funeral vigil for the bodies
Six days after the Indonesian double disaster, needs remain unclear
"There is a smell of corpses": the record rises in Indonesia disaster
Today's coverage of Swiss Post correspondents around the world
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