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Palu, Indonesia (AFP) – Rescuers who survived the earthquake after the earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia issued a new public health alert on Saturday as new rotting corpses were discovered under the ruined city of Palu.
More than a thousand people could still be missing in the seaside town of Sulawesi Island, officials said after the area was hit by a powerful earthquake and wall of water , with an official record of 1,571 deaths.
Hopes of finding people alive for eight full days since the disaster have fled, though Indonesian authorities have not officially canceled the search for survivors.
It is feared that a large number of decomposing bodies will be buried under Petobo and Balaroa, two virtually scratched areas of the map, and the authorities have warned survivors to stay away as they prepare for discoveries. more macabre.
"Most of the bodies we found are not intact, which is a danger to the rescuers.We must be very careful to avoid any contamination," AFP spokesman Yusuf Latif told AFP. Search and rescue effort in Indonesia (Palu).
"We have vaccinated our teams, but we have to be extra careful because they are exposed to health risks, it's also a health concern for the public, it's very difficult to control the crowd. could be exposed to danger. "
– & # 39; Right Body & # 39; –
In a vast government housing complex in Balaroa, where the earthquake force temporarily shook the earth, masked soldiers approached giant mounds of mud, brick and cement.
Troops sneaking under the collapsed walls and scaling the wavy leaves should not look hard.
Sergeant Syafaruddin, from an army unit in Makassar, south of Palu, requests that a body bag be brought to a location near the current location of the remains of an Islamic school.
Two of his soldiers come out of the ditch, the body bag sagging in the middle, but looks too light to be a corpse. They say they have found the heads of two adults and a child.
"There are no survivors here, we just find bodies every day," says Syafaruddin, who, like many Indonesians, has only one name.
In another place, an excavator is called to restore the devastated remains of a house. With almost no effort, he digs up the body of a lady with long hair and buried in the mud.
At the roa-roa hotel, where the atmosphere began to intensify and the tropical heat intensified, the search teams also prepared body bags.
Rescuers watched footage from CCTV Saturday to get an idea of where convicted guests might be buried under the impenetrable mountain of twisted rubble.
– Short supplies –
Survivors ransacked shops and provided trucks in search of basic necessities, prompting security forces to gather dozens of suspected raiders and tell them that they were going to open fire on thieves .
Hundreds of people rushed Saturday in a truck carrying gas cylinders for cooking. Long lines of waiting were forming.
A supermarket that opened refused to let people in, but instead passed goods through the door as armed troops kept watch.
"We have not increased prices at all, but we do not let customers in for security reasons, the building survived the earthquake, but we do not know if it is safe," he said. said Satria Hamid, spokesperson for the Transmart Carrefour supermarket.
Thousands of survivors continued to flee from Palu to nearby cities in the aftermath of the disaster.
Hospitals remain overwhelmed and lack staff and supplies.
Project HOPE, a medical NGO, said only two of its 82 employees in Palu had taken office since the earthquake.
"We still do not know the fate of the doctors, nurses and clinic technicians who usually work in the clinic," said the organization in a statement.
A floating hospital run by the Indonesian Navy and docked in the port of Palu has already contributed to the delivery of a baby, local media reports said.
– The help infiltrates in –
The United Nations said Friday that it was seeking $ 50.5 million "immediate help" to help the victims of the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia.
After days of delay, international aid is slowly moving towards the disaster area, where the UN says nearly 200,000 people are in need of humanitarian aid.
Indonesia had hesitated to accept outside help at first, but when the disaster hit, the government agreed to allow foreign aid.
Obtaining vital supplies in the affected areas has proved extremely difficult, as the number of flights that can land at the small Palu airport is still limited, humanitarian workers have to cope with exhausting journeys by land.
Oxfam had sent water treatment units and purification kits to Palu and the Swiss rescue teams on the ground were providing drinking water and emergency shelter, said Saturday in a statement. a statement.
Indonesia is located along the Pacific's most "tectonically active" "fire belt", and its 260 million people are vulnerable to earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions.
