The aid infiltrates as the death toll in Indonesia rises to 1,400

PALU, Indonesia – The memories and horror of a disaster that left more than 1,400 dead are both hard to erase and understand for survivors of the earthquake and tsunami that hit the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia. Nature has just unleashed her fury on them.

Furniture maker Khairul Hassan is recalled having worked in a store near the beach in front of a row of warehouses when the earth began to shake violently last week. He ran to a nearby hill and watched as the sea lifted and flung itself forward. Now he can not forget.

"I saw the waves coming in and sweeping everything – buildings, factories, warehouses, and some lost people running under the waves, some of whom were women and children," he said Wednesday. "In addition, warehouse workers who have been trapped under goods, all swept by the sea. This is so tragic. It's so scary to remember it. "

The official toll has risen to 1,407, with thousands injured and more than 70,000 displaced from their homes, said spokesman for the National Disaster Agency, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho. He added that the death toll would increase, but the rescue teams had reached all the affected areas.

Aid was slowly making its way into the areas devastated by the double disaster, the inhabitants of a neighborhood applauding, applauding and exalting their excitement on Wednesday seeing a stopped truck filled with supplies.

"I'm so happy," said Heruwanto, 63, who has a name. He was holding a box of instant noodles. "I have not really eaten in three days."

Food, water, fuel and medicine were still slow to reach the hardest hit areas outside Palu, the country's largest city heavily damaged by Friday's disaster. Many roads were broken and divided by violent jolts or blocked by debris. Communications remained limited.

The US Humanitarian Office said that "the needs are vast," the people in dire need of shelter, clean water, food, fuel and emergency medical care.

At the same time, a volcano erupted Wednesday morning in another part of the island of Sulawesi, about 940 kilometers northeast of the seismic zone, spewing a plume of ash to more than 6,000 meters in the sky. The planes were warned that the cloud was escaping from Mount Soputan because the material could be dangerous to the aircraft engines, but no evacuation was ordered in the area.

Experts said it was possible that the quake had accelerated the eruption, but there is no concrete evidence to prove it. Kasbani, who heads the Indonesian Agency for Vulcanology and Geological Disaster Control and uses a single name, told an online news portal about his activity.

In the earthquake zone, water is the main problem as most of the food infrastructure has been damaged, US Assistant Spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters at UN headquarters in New York . He added that the government was coordinating the emergency efforts and that the relief agencies and the UN were on the ground or en route.

"We feel like stepchildren here because all the help goes to Palu," said Mohamad Taufik, 38, of Donggala City, where five of his relatives are still missing. "There are many young children here who are hungry and sick, but there is no milk or medicine."

More than 25 countries have offered their help after the appeal of Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo to international aid. However, a small part of it reached the disaster area and increasingly desperate residents seized food and fuel in damaged shops and asked for help. Widodo visited the affected area on Wednesday, stressing that there is still work to be done, but conditions are improving with the reopening of businesses, helping people to return to normal life. He said President Donald Trump called him Tuesday night to offer his help.

"We go in phases. There is a lot of evacuation going on, because help and fuel are coming in as well, "he said, noting that 30 people were buried under the rubble at the hotel. Roa Roa de Palu. "Every province has different cases, including security."

Some homeless residents were not waiting for help. Dozens of them scoured what was left of a shaved warehouse complex along the ravaged coastline of Palu, looking for everything they could recover to sell or help rebuild. . They took corrugated metal, wood, piping and other objects.

"We have to do it because the government is not helping us," said 41-year-old Zaitun Rajamangili, adding that her house had been swept away, but her family had survived.

An aircraft carrying 12,000 liters (3,170 gallons) of fuel had arrived and trucks carrying food were en route with police escorts to protect themselves from looters. Many service stations were unusable because of earthquake damage or fuel theft, said spokesman for the National Disaster Agency, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, in Jakarta.

Indonesian army chief Hadi Tjahyanto said that an armed soldier and an armed police officer would be placed in each relief truck and that soldiers would be sent to secure markets at the same time. airport and in fuel depots to maintain order. He added that a Singaporean military transport plane would help evacuate the victims of Palu airport. In addition, planes from South Korea, the United Kingdom and Japan are expected to carry aid.

Teams continued to search for survivors in destroyed homes and buildings.

Australia has announced that it will send 50 health professionals as part of a $ 3.6 million grant. The United States and China are among the other countries that have offered assistance.

The United Nations University, Haq, said the Indonesian Ministry of Social Affairs had asked UNICEF, the US agency for children, to send social workers to the affected area to help the children. isolated or separated from their families. And he added that the World Health Organization had warned that a lack of shelters and damaged sanitation facilities could lead to outbreaks of communicable diseases.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago of 260 million inhabitants, is frequently hit by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis because of its location on the "fire belt", an arch of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin. A powerful earthquake on the island of Lombok killed 505 people in August.

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Niniek Karmini, associate editor, Palu, Indonesia; Margie Mason and Eileen Ng in Jakarta, Indonesia; Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Australia; and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

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