Search and rescue workers evacuate an earthquake and tsunami survivor trapped in a collapsed restaurant, Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia September 30, 2018 in this photo taken by Antara Foto. Antara Foto/Muhammad Adimaja/ via REUTERS
SEPTEMBER 30th, 2018
By Patryk Krych | The World Daily
832 found dead after Indonesia’s earthquake
Sitting on the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire, Indonesia is no stranger to earthquakes and tsunamis, especially those of a grander scale, as one might reminisce about the disaster back in 2004, which had ended up killing 226,000 people in 13 countries. Hence the lack of confusion when such an event had struck again last Friday, now with a confirmed death toll of 832, confirmed on Sunday. The number is expected to rise, as people are still being rescued from the rubble of collapsed structures.
The country has suffered some confusion, however, by the failure of the warning systems set up after 2004’s disaster had occurred. It’s become rather apparent that no tsunami buoys have been working in the country since 2012, due to a lack of funding, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, told a news conference.
Apparently a warning was issued by the meteorological and geophysics agency BMKG, regarding the earthquake, but was lifted promptly, after only 34 minutes, having thought to have been issued too hurriedly. Disaster officials believe the wave, traveling at nearly 800kph, had struck around this time, at Palu’s beach where hundreds were gathered for a festival.
He went on to state; “We haven’t received reports from the three other areas. Communication is still down, power is still out. We don’t know for sure what is the impact,” referring to Donggala, a region North of Palu with a population of over 300,000 people, having been near the earthquake’s epicentre, along with two other regions to which communications have been down since Friday.
Most of the confirmed deaths so far have been in Palu, with tolls expected to rise as rubble is excavated, with the total of the three region’s population (Palu included) being over 1.3 million. A woman was rescued recently after being pulled from the debris of Palu’s Roa Roa Hotel, where 60 people had been trapped alongside her. This is just one of the many hotels in which people are still expected to be found, either dead or alive, along with a number of malls and homes.
Amongst the tweets relating to the disaster, Lian Gogali, a social worker, had tweeted that there were several villages in need of resources on the west coast of Sulawesi. She stated they lack food, shelters, and medicine. Along with this, President Joko Widodo tweeted on Sunday; “Grieve for the people of Central Sulawesi, we all grieve together.”
Soon after the 7.5 magnitude earthquake on Friday, and the resulting 48 hours aftershocks, it’s been added on by Nugroho that five foreigners had gone missing along with the majority civilians during the disaster.
Hundreds of tonnes of government rice stocks are to be sent to Central Sulawesi regions struck by the disaster, said Budi Waseso, the state logistics agency chief, after released footage of soldiers in the most affected regions handing out food, and several shots of civilians stealing from ruined stores just to acquire rations.
Help has already been offered by the nearby countries of Thailand, Australia and China, and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati also said 560 billion rupiah (£28.85 million) for disaster recovery has been allocated by the government, in preparation for any such occurrences.
By Patryk Krych | The World Daily
©2018 THE WORLD DAILY
