TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Emergency response period extended for survivors
Resigned to fate: Adi, who lost his mother and cousin in the earthquake and tsunami, recites a prayer amid the ruins of the Balaroa housing complex in Palu, Central Sulawesi, on Thursday
Change Size
R
esigned to fate: Adi, who lost his mother and cousin in the earthquake and tsunami, recites a prayer amid the ruins of the Balaroa housing complex in Palu, Central Sulawesi, on Thursday. The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) announced it had halted search, rescue and evacuation efforts for quake and tsunami victims.(JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
The government has decided to extend the emergency-period in Central Sulawesi for another two weeks until Oct. 26 to focus on accelerating provisions for survivors.
“As there are many things that need to be sorted out on the ground, such as the needs of the displaced, fixing facilities, temporary shelters and medical treatment, the emergency response period is extended by 14 days,” National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) spokesperson Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told the press in Jakarta on Thursday.
Nearly 79,000 evacuees are still living at 112 evacuation sites in Central Sulawesi. Some of the evacuees, whose houses were only lightly damaged, are able to return home but refuse to do so out of fear of aftershocks.
As of Thursday, the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) had recorded more than 500 aftershocks in the province — 17 of which were quite big.
A 7.4-magnitude earthquake that jolted Central Sulawesi on Sept. 28 and was followed by a tsunami and soil liquefaction, had resulted in total destruction in a number of areas across the province — namely Palu, Sigi, Donggala and Parigi Moutong.
The catastrophe was recorded to have claimed at least 2,073 lives as of Thursday, while around 680 people were still reported missing. The majority of the casualties were caused by the tsunami, which reached a height of 11 meters.
Although the emergency period is set to be extended, the authorities have decided to soon stop retrieving dead bodies in disaster-hit areas for health reasons.
The authorities previously planned to stop recovering bodies on Oct. 11, but later revised the date to Oct. 12 at the request of victims’ families.
“A number of people still insist on looking for their relatives in the disaster-hit areas, so we decided to continue the search until Friday afternoon,” Sutopo said. “We hope the residents don’t continue the search on their own afterward, because it could harm their health.”
Sutopo further said that bodies buried in the ground for two weeks would already have started decomposing and would contain germs, which could cause diseases such as cholera.
The BNPB said in a press conference previously that an estimated 5,000 people were believed to be buried in Petobo and Balaroa subdistricts in Palu city due to soil liquefaction. Hundreds of others were predicted to be buried in Jono Oge village, Sigi regency.
On the final two days of the recovery process, search and rescue teams will focus on seven areas where many dead bodies are believed to be buried. Among them are Dunia Baru restaurant, Mercure Hotel, Balaroa and Petobo in Palu.
As many as 10,875 joint personnel are deployed in the search. They comprise 7,107 Indonesian Military personnel, 2,208 National Police officers and 1,560 civil society personnel.
The Central Sulawesi administration confirmed the plan to extend the emergency period for the next two weeks.
However, Governor Longki Djanggola said the rescue teams would still be deployed to recover bodies to follow up residents’ reports.
“If residents report that they have found bodies. The search and rescue teams are ready,” he said.
The BNPB recorded that around 67,310 houses were damaged in Central Sulawesi.
In addition to the temporary housing, the government has also committed to build permanent houses for the victims of soil liquefaction in new areas. The areas must not be at risk of disaster.
The Palu administration has identified two potential areas for the housing, namely Duyu and Ngata Baru. The areas, however, need to be assessed first by the geological agency.
The Geospatial Information Agency (BIG) said that every local administration should really make use of disaster-prone-area maps to develop their respective regions.
“Indonesia is ‘the supermarket of disasters’ because it a meeting point of several tectonic plates, including the Indo-Australian, Eurasian and Pacific plates. Believe it or not, we have to be friends with disasters,” said Mohamad Arief Syafii, BIG’s deputy of basic geospatial information.
