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The magnitude 7.5 earthquake and tsunami that hit the Indonesian island of Sulawesi on Friday confirmed the deaths of hundreds of people, the New York Times reported Saturday, with at least 405 confirmed deaths in the city of Palu . increase much higher than the search and rescue teams continue to arrive. Hundreds of others are injured.
The Times reported that the disaster has shaved large parts of the city in addition to neighboring coastal communities, with thousands of structures destroyed. The exact number of deaths could be difficult to determine, the paper added, as workers and security personnel were present as "preparations were under way for a seaside festival with dances and other performances" , as well as a high probability that the tsunami holds a lot of people in the ocean:
The two disasters – an earthquake of magnitude 7.5 and the swirling wall it triggered – killed at least 405 people in Palu and destroyed thousands of buildings, including a shopping center, a hotel, restaurants by the sea and several mosques.
"We found bodies of the earthquake and bodies washed away by the tsunami," Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for the Indonesian Disaster Relief Agency, said in a televised interview.
The Indonesian authorities were preparing for a sharp increase in the death toll as the search and rescue teams had not yet reached the populated coastal settlements near Palu. Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla told a local news site that thousands of people are reported to have died, with an unknown number of people being taken by the sea.
Kalla added that when the famous Indian Ocean tsunami struck Aceh in northern Sumatra in 2004, the death toll originally estimated at 40 people eventually exceeded 130,000 (an estimated at least 230,000 people reportedly died in 14 countries). ).
Palu, a city of 300,000, may also have been particularly affected, as emergency warning systems that could have prevented the tsunami were made unusable by the collapse of the towers. cells during the earthquake, the Times wrote. The Indonesian Meteorological and Physical Agency also lifted its own tsunami warning "just over half an hour after the earthquake," although it has not yet been determined whether the waves had already struck. the coast when they chose to do it.
The Washington Post reported that the nation's emergency officials were investigating why many members of the public did not seem to have been properly alerted to the risk of the wave:
Indonesian officials may also question why tsunami warnings were triggered even as a disaster erupted, raising questions about the level of surveillance and post-earthquake analysis in a country along most active fault in the world.
"People were always engaged in their activities on the beach and did not get down to work immediately," said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for the Indonesian National Disaster Management Agency, who said that Hundreds of people gathered in Palu for a party on the beach. The number of deaths, he added, "will continue to increase as research continues."
The emergency response is hampered by damaged or destroyed roads, harbors and communication lines, the paper added, as well as the number of people deployed on Lombok Island after another devastating earthquake of magnitude 6, 9.
Anthonius Gunawan Agung, a 21-year-old air traffic controller at a regional airport, remained at his post while other personnel were evacuated, ensuring the take-off of Batik Flight 6231. the air traffic controller jumped from the tower until his death while his roof collapsed, while the pilot (identified by the Times as Ricosetta Mafella) posted a short video of the wave arriving on Instagram.
"Thank God, a voice (the Holy Spirit, I believe) tells me to leave early," he wrote. "I rush into the boarding process. After 30 seconds, I would not have flown.
Although Indonesia is in the Ring of Fire – a chain of about 25,000 miles of volcanoes and other tectonic hot spots that cross the Pacific Ocean and hosts 90% of the earthquakes. earth in the world – National Geographic reported that the tsunami was unexpected. . It was recorded as a result of a "strike fault" during which tectonic plates clash horizontally rather than vertically. Vertical displacement is more likely to cause a tsunami than horizontal displacement of a fault.
According to Oxford University geophysicist Baptiste Gombert, the geology of the area is incredibly complex, but early signs indicate that landslides above or below the waterline have played a role. It is also possible that the waves were magnified by the shape of the bay when the tsunami forced water into the confined space.
The Indonesian Central Statistical Agency estimates that about 2.4 million people could be affected by the disaster, according to the Times.
[New York Times/Washington Post]