Death toll in Indonesia climbs higher, expected to rise
Posted September 30, 2018 7:20 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
JAKARTA, Indonesia — More than 830 people have been confirmed dead in the earthquake and tsunami that struck the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, but officials fear the death toll could climb much higher.
Reporter Margie Mason says it’s difficult to measure the extent of the destruction because several large coastal towns remain cut off from rescue workers.
“They are having a really hard time getting equipment into the area. A lot of the roads are completely impassable. The earthquake basically splintered a lot of the roads and you also have landslides in a lot of areas,” she sa.
“So they are really struggling to even get a basic assessment of how bad it is.”
Indonesia’s disaster agency says a mass burial will be held in the city of Palu, which was slammed by an earthquake-spawned tsunami that killed at least 832 people.
Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, the spokesman of the national disaster mitigation agency, told a news conference Sunday that the burial will be held for health reasons.
He also said 61 foreigners were in Palu at the time of the disaster, and most have been accounted for. But one South Korean is believed to be trapped in the ruins of the Roa-Roa Hotel, where some 50 others are believed to be trapped under rubble. Three visitors from France and one from Malaysia are missing. The survivors will be evacuated to the Sulawesi island city of Makassar.
A village chief says 100 to 200 people could be buried under the debris of a residential complex in the Indonesian city of Palu that was badly damaged in the deadly earthquake that spawned a tsunami and devastated the region.
Rahmansyah, the village chief, says many bodies have already been pulled from the rubble and 90 people are reportedly missing. Access to the area is extremely difficult due to damaged roads, preventing search and rescue teams from reaching the area until Sunday afternoon.
Like many Indonesians, Rahmansyah uses one name. There are about 800 people living in the area, and all of the houses were destroyed by the earthquake.
Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has arrived in the region devastated by a deadly earthquake and tsunami.
Jokowi said Sunday in the hard-hit Sulawesi island city of Palu that the city’s airport “is not 100 per cent ready for landing.”
“There are many challenges,” he said. “We have to do many things soon, but the condition does not allow us to do so.”
Pope Francis has led the faithful in prayer for the people of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.
The pope offered a prayer after the traditional Sunday blessing for the “unfortunately numerous” dead, the injured and for those who lost their homes and jobs. He said that “God consoles them and supports the efforts of those who are working to bring aid.”
A magnitude 7.5 earthquake spawned the deadly tsunami on Friday evening.
