[ad_1]
PALU, Indonesia (Reuters) – Relatives of hundreds of missing people after an earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia reacted angrily, sadly and resigned Sunday after the decision of the national disaster agency to end body searches at the end of the week.
A woman cries while attending an open-air religious service in the Jono Oge village earthquake-damaged region of Sigi district, south of Palu, central Sulawesi, Indonesia , October 7, 2018. REUTERS / Darren Whiteside
The magnitude 7.5 earthquake of September 28 destroyed shopping centers, hotels and other buildings in the city of Palu, while waves of the tsunami crashed on the seafront. But the liquefaction of soil, which has erased several neighborhoods in Palu, may have been more deadly.
Nobody knows how many people are missing, but there are at least a hundred, say the rescuers.
The official death toll is 1,763, but the bodies are still recovering. At least 34 people are in the same place on Saturday and Sunday.
"Many of us are angry at not finding their families and friends and want to give up?", Said Hajah Ikaya, 60, who said she lost her sister, brother-in-law and his niece in the district of Balaroa to the south of the city. They have all disappeared.
Balaroa is one of the areas particularly affected by liquefaction, which turns the soil into a veritable quagmire, destroying homes and dragging people under mud and debris.
The claims agency announced that the liquefaction had destroyed 1,700 homes in a neighborhood, with hundreds of people buried in the mud.
"We are Muslims. We need a proper burial, in the Islamic way, "said Ikaya. "We do not want that."
The spokesman of the agency for disasters, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, said at a meeting in Jakarta that limited research could continue, but that large-scale research involving many staff members and heavy equipment would cease on 11 October.
Debris would be cleaned up and areas affected by liquefaction would be transformed into parks and sports venues. Surveys would be carried out and people living in vulnerable places would be displaced.
"We do not want the community to be relocated to such dangerous places," Nugroho said.
Most of the victims of the earthquake and tsunami were in Palu, the main urban center of the region. The numbers for the more remote areas are arriving, but they seem to have suffered fewer deaths than the city.
Dede Diman, 25, a resident of Petobo, another Palu neighborhood that was devastated by liquefaction, said rescuers had not even begun to look for where her sister had been lost.
"We are already angry," said Diman, who lives in a shelter with his brother and another sister. Their mother was killed and her body found.
"We do not agree to give up. Even if they give up, we will not do it. We want to find our sister. "
Chart: Sulawesi Catastrophe – tmsnrt.rs/2OqQlUo
PRAYERS
Mohammad Irfan, 25, returned home to Palu on Sunday, while air services came from his job on the island of Bali to help search for his missing grandfather.
"I would be very sad if the research mission ends, because there are so many who are still missing and buried," he said.
A grieving father was resigned to search and ended without his two-year-old daughter being found.
"What is the goal anyway? At this point they are not even recognizable," said Ondre, 38, who makes toys for a living.
His wife and two daughters were swept away by the tsunami that struck the Palu waterfront after the earthquake. He has found the bodies of his wife and eldest daughter, but is still looking for his youngest daughter.
"I do not want her to feel like her father has never tried to find her. My soul would not want to rest, "he said near a mass grave at the top of a hill overlooking Palu Bay at sunset, where he had come to pray.
Sulawesi is one of the five main islands of Indonesia. The archipelago experiences frequent earthquakes and occasional tsunamis.
In 2004, an earthquake on the island of Sumatra caused a tsunami in the Indian Ocean, claiming 226,000 lives in 13 countries, including more than 120,000 in Indonesia.
Earlier on Sunday, dozens of Christians gathered in front of ruined churches to render services, to thank for their survival and to mourn the members of their congregation killed in the disaster.
Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world, but there are Christian communities in the archipelago, including Palu.
"We are so relieved to be alive but sad because so many of our congregation have died," said 26-year-old Dewi Febriani, after serving in a tent in front of the Toraja church in Jono Oge village. , south of Palu.
Jono Oge was hit hard by liquefaction, killing dozens of teenagers in a nearby church and biblical camp. Many lies are buried in the mud.
Graphic: Destruction in Palu – tmsnrt.rs/2IDFukK
Other reports from Jessica Damiana to JAKARTA, from Rozanna Latiff to PALU; Written by Robert Birsel; Edited by Raju Gopalakrishnan
