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PALU, Indonesia – She was lying in a medical tent in the stifling midday heat, wincing at the nicks and cuts that covered her. But all that Anisa Cornelia could think of was the love of her life – the man she was supposed to be married with this month.
She had not seen it since the tsunami crashed on an Indonesian island, perhaps separating the two forever, while they were strolling along a beach of fine sand at dusk.
"Where is my fiancee? Please, do you have news? ", Pleaded the 22-year-old woman, severely bruised, while the medical staff came to monitor her in the courtyard of the main hospital of the city of Palu.
"Everyone is still looking for it," said Dr. Andi Sengrengrele, pressing his lips sympathetically. "You must be patient, agree?"
A week after the magnitude 7.5 earthquake and tsunami, countless people still have not found their loved ones, survivors and dead.
By the end of Thursday, the government had 1,558 dead, 113 missing and 152 others believed to be buried in mud and debris and not yet recovered. However, many families have never registered their losses with the police. It is also not known how many people drowned, were carried into the sea or were swallowed up in two parts of Palu where the soil was liquefied when the earthquake condensed loose, moist soil in mud.
Lisda Cancer, who heads the Victim Identification Department of the local police, said that about 600 bodies buried in mass graves in Palu were unclaimed. Until Wednesday, the authorities had photographed them in the hope that their relatives could identify them later.
"But we had to stop because the corpses we are recovering now have become too decomposed," said Cancer. "They have become a danger to public health, and the new instructions must bury them immediately."
The disaster overwhelmed the local authorities. On Thursday, a private ambulance brought the body of a man found on the road in two hospitals, including one where Cornelia was being treated. Both installations repressed them.
Before the vehicle left, a woman wearing a red scarf looking for her missing daughter started crying. Hospital staff said that they had received his body, but had already released him for burial in one of Palu's mass graves.
Cornelia recounted that she had met her fiance, Iqbal Nurdiansyah, 25, seven years earlier, through friends at school. She was attracted by her warm personality, her bushy eyebrows and her beautiful face.
Three years ago, he took her to her favorite restaurant, on Palu Bay, and offered her. A two-week wedding ceremony was scheduled to begin on October 15 and end with a reception at a hotel called Swiss Bell, which also overlooked the beach.
On September 28, the couple were walking along the sandy coast after an early dinner with eight members of Nurdiansyah's family. Nurdiansyah noticed how beautiful the sunset was and organized a group photo.
Then, suddenly, the ground shook under their feet.
The people who played volleyball and relaxed in the cafes along the coast began to shout, "Earthquake! Earthquake!"
Terrifying as the tremors were, Cornelia and her future husband thought they had escaped the disaster unscathed.
Shortly afterwards, however, she heard a roar and turned to see a huge wave rushing towards them – the biggest she had ever seen in her life. All started to run. The last time she saw Nurdiansyah, he was trying to pick up two of his young nieces to save them.
Cornelia, who did not know how to swim, swallowed salt water while she was sucked by the mighty wave and she was turning, "left and right, like a spinning ball ".
Miraculously, she was still somewhere on the beach, unharmed and able to stand up. But then a second wave hit, this one lower and much faster. The wall of water dragged him at least one kilometer inland, shredding his entire body – from head to toe – among broken concrete blocks, broken wooden planks and swirling waste.
When the water finally began to retreat, she found herself alone – wedged between a metal fence and the scene of a football field. A man helped her get up and limped in the dark, in front of crushed cars that had been thrown on piles of debris and a naked man whose clothes had been torn apart by the waves.
Of the nine other people who were on the beach with her that day, only one survived: a 5-year-old Nurdiansyah niece. Two others have been confirmed dead, while six are still missing.
On Thursday, at the hospital, Cornelia's mother, Ray Djangaritu, tried to console her.
Friends searched the hospitals without success, but he may have been taken to another city like other injured survivors, she said. Cellular networks have been down or restricted for much of the week, making communication difficult. "I think he's still alive," she said.
The tears streaming from her eyes, Cornelia clung to this hope.
"I still want to marry her, even if God returns him with a disability, without hands or blindness," she said. "I can see for him, as long as I'm healthy."
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Andi Jatmiko, Associated Press reporter, contributed to this report.
Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, disseminated, rewritten or redistributed.
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