The death toll from an earthquake and tsunami that decimated parts of the central Indonesian island of Sulawesi jumped to more than 1,200 on Tuesday as disaster officials began reaching coastal areas that were cut off by blocked roads and downed communications lines.
Officials said hundreds of other people were severely injured, and that scores of bodies could still be buried under quicksand-like mud caused by Friday’s magnitude 7.5 earthquake.
More than 25 countries have offered assistance after Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo appealed for international help. Little of that, however, has arrived in the quake zone, and increasingly desperate residents grabbed food and fuel from damaged stores and begged for help.
Rescuers have focused much of their attention so far on the biggest affected city, Palu, which has 380,000 people and is easier to reach than other hard-hit areas.
“We feel like we are stepchildren here because all the help is going to Palu,” said Mohamad Taufik, 38, from the town of Donggala, who said 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.”
Along the coast, the tsunami, which reportedly reached as high as nearly 20 feet in some places, shattered buildings, uprooted concrete and thrust houses and boats tens of meters inland.
The death toll for all affected areas reached 1,234, national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said in Jakarta, the capital. He said more people remain trapped in Sigi and Balaroa, meaning the toll is likely to rise.
Nugroho said more aid was being distributed, but “we still need more time to take care of all the problems.”
He said 153 bodies were buried Monday in a mass grave and that the operation continued Tuesday.
A special aircraft carrying 3,170 gallons of fuel had arrived and trucks with food were on the way with police escorts to guard against looters. Nugroho said many gas stations were inoperable either because of quake damage or from people stealing fuel.
The frustration of waiting for days without help boiled over for some.
“Pay attention to Donggala, Mr. Jokowi. Pay attention to Donggala,” yelled one resident in a video broadcast on local television, referring to the president. “There are still a lot of unattended villages here.”
The town’s head, Kasman Lassa, all but gave residents permission to take food – but nothing else – from shops.
“Everyone is hungry and they want to eat after several days of not eating,” Lassa said on local TV. “We have anticipated it by providing food, rice, but it was not enough. There are many people here. So, on this issue, we cannot pressure them to hold much longer.”
Desperation was visible in Palu as well. Signs propped along roads read “We Need Food” and “We Need Support,” while children begged for cash in the streets and long lines of cars snarled traffic as people waited for gas.
Teams were searching for trapped survivors under destroyed homes and buildings, including a collapsed eight-story hotel in Palu, but they needed more heavy equipment to clear the rubble. Nearly 62,000 people have been displaced from their homes, Nugroho said.
Many people were believed trapped under shattered houses in the Palu neighborhood of Balaroa, where the earthquake caused the ground to heave up and down violently.