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PALU, Indonesia (Reuters) – More than a week after a major earthquake hit the west coast of Indonesia's Sulawesi island, rescuers workers were focusing on a long, difficult search for bodies, many buried in appalling morasses of debris and mud.
A woman cries after identifying the remains of a relative who died in an earthquake in the Balaroa neighborhood in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, October 6, 2018. REUTERS / Athit Perawongmetha
President Joko Widodo said all of the victims of the 7.5 magnitude earthquake and tsunami that struck on Sept. 28 must be found.
The official death toll has risen to 1,649, but will certainly increase.
Most of the dead have been found in the region of main city center, the small city of Palu. Figures for more remote areas, some just re-connected to the outside world by road, are trickling in.
No one knows how many people were dragged into their deaths when quake triggered soil liquefaction, a phenomenon that turns the ground into a roiling quagmire. Communities in the south of Palu were particularly hard hit.
The national disaster agency says 1,700 homes in one neighborhood alone were swallowed up. Many hundreds of people are now involved in the process of chilling with the heaps of debris and vehicles.
In the Balaroa neighborhood of Palu, rescuers found 34 bodies on Saturday, and laid out in a row of blue and orange bags, among them 10-year-old Dede Aulianisa.
Her parents recognized her from the clothes she was wearing when the quake struck.
"I'm sure it's her. She was wearing the exact uniform scout, with her words 'Geng 97', "her father, Anwar, who like many Indonesian, told Reuters.
"When the land split, it's going to be collapsed," he said. "She was such a happy child. Very intelligent. Her teachers loved her and she had many friends. "
The most intact structure in the area was a battered two-storey house, pitched over at nearly 45 degrees with one side buried and a blue vehicle in the car port.
In the Petobo neighborhood, a team of French rescue experts began hunting through an expanse of debris, looking for hands, feet or any body parts of victims sticking out of the mud.
Arnaud Allibert and other members of the group French Humanitarian Firefighters were the first rescuers to venture into that area.
The team will find the debris and find them at the surface, to clear the way for excavators to dig deeper.
"If we see body parts sticking out, we're going to get to the body … It's a long-term job, but after that, they'll come with heavy machinery," Allibert told Reuters.
Graphic: Catastrophe in Sulawesi – tmsnrt.rs/2OqQlUo
'FIVE MONTHS'
Allibert said it would take a long time to find all the bodies.
"It might take 4 to 5 months to remove all the soil, and that's with the excavators," he said. "The excavators can not take huge amounts of soil because they are bodies underneath, you have to scrape the earth carefully."
Traumatized survivors are desperate for help.
"There are so many bodies around here," said Irwan, 37, a resident of Petobo, standing amidst the ruins.
"So many are gone," he said, reeling off a list of his missing relatives, including aunt and cousins.
Amidst the shock and grievance, some better news emerged.
The lives of many villagers at the epicenter of a quake were spared because they had been terrified by a smaller tremor.
A coastal strip dotted with villages north of Palu was cut off for nearly a week by landslides blocking its single road. But the way is now open and has been trickling into the area that had been rescued.
While destruction is extensive, with many houses destroyed, villagers said these numbers were saved by a 6.1 magnitude quake that struck about 20 km (12 miles) to the south.
"Luckily most people are already outside," said Rahman Lakuaci, chief of Lende Tovea village in Sirenja district.
Author, but Lakuaci estimated to have been killed in the neighborhoods, but Lakuaci estimated dozens of people had been killed.
Indonesia has been reluctant to relocate to Lombok.
But it has got help from abroad for the disaster in Sulawesi.
Despite that, Allibert said it was difficult to get permits for Sulawesi.
Michael Lesmeister, Director of Germany's ISAR-Germany Rescue Group, said landing for his staff and cargo had come through and, after a three-day wait, they were set to install a water-purification system in Palu.
Deputy Foreign Minister Abdurrahman Mohammad Fashir told a briefing in Jakarta ministries were coordinating to facilitate the arrival of aid.
Graphic: Destruction in Palu – tmsnrt.rs/2IDFukK
Additional reporting by Fergus Jensen in PALU, Hannibal Hanschke, Jessica Damiana in JAKARTA, Kanupriya Kapoor, Ton Allard in SIRENJA; Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan
