French rescuers search for bodies in wreckage of Indonesia earthquake disaster

PALU, Indonesia (Reuters) – A team of French rescue experts began on Saturday to search an immense expanse of debris on the outskirts of the Indonesian city of Palu, looking for hands, feet or body parts. of earthquake victims coming out of the mud.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo said all victims of the magnitude 7.5 earthquake and tsunami that hit the west coast of the island of Sulawesi on September 28, killing more than 1,500 people, must be killed. found.

Hundreds of people are believed to be buried in the slowly drying mud that enveloped communities in the south of the small town of Palu when the earthquake caused the liquefaction of the soil, a phenomenon that turns the soil into a quagmire. rocky.

Arnaud Allibert and four other members of the French Humanitarian Fire Brigade were the first saviors in a dark expanse of entangled debris, which is all that remains of the village of Petobo.

The team's task is to search for and recover the bodies on the surface to allow heavy machinery to enter and dig deeper.

It will be a long and difficult job.

"We're going to clean up all the shallow debris that's upstairs and go into the spaces and see if there are any bodies," Allibert told Reuters as he examined a dreadful pile of debris.

"If there are bodies in the spaces, we will extract them. If we see body parts coming out, we'll dig to get the body out. It's a long-term job, but after that, they will come with heavy machinery, "he said.

The official record of the earthquake and the resulting tsunami is 1,649, but it will certainly increase.

Most of the dead were found in Palu. The numbers for the more remote areas, some of which have just been reconnected to the outside world by road, are just spinning.

Nobody knows how many people were dragged to death when the ground under Petobo and the neighboring areas south of Palu dissolved so violently.

The houses were sucked into the ground, torn and pushed hundreds of meters by the mud.

(CHART: Catastrophe in Sulawesi – tmsnrt.rs/2OqQlUo)

& # 39; FIVE MONTHS & # 39;

The National Disaster Relief Agency said 1,700 houses in one neighborhood had been swallowed up and hundreds of people had disappeared.

Allibert said it would take months to find all the bodies.

"It could take four to five months to remove all the soil, and that's with the excavators," he said. "Excavators can not absorb huge amounts of soil because there are bodies underneath, you have to scrape the ground carefully."

The traumatized survivors are in desperate need of help.

"There are so many dead bodies here," said 37-year-old Irwan, who, like many Indonesians, has only one name.

"I come from here so my whole family is here and many are gone," he said, compiling a list of the missing, including a sister, aunt and cousins.

"Where are they, and if they are still alive, we need help finding them," he said.

Indonesia has always been reluctant to rely on outside help to deal with natural disasters.

The government has avoided foreign aid this year when earthquakes hit the island of Lombok, while saying it would accept help from abroad for Sulawesi.

Despite this, Allibert said that it had been difficult to obtain permits for Sulawesi.

"I totally understand, they do not want anyone coming," he said.

Michael Lesmeister, director of the German ISAR-Germany group (International Search and Rescue), announced that landing permits for his staff and cargo had been issued. After three days of waiting, they had to install a water purification system in Palu.

Deputy Foreign Minister Abdurrahman Mohammad Fashir said at a meeting in Jakarta that 25 countries and four foreign organizations had offered their help and that the ministries were coordinating to facilitate the arrival of their aid. .

The most important items are planes, generators, tents, water treatment and medical facilities in the field, he said.

(GRAPHIC: Destruction at Palu – tmsnrt.rs/2IDFukK)