About 5,000 people are still missing, feared death, after an earthquake and tsunami hit Sulawesi just over a week ago.
The official death toll stands at 1,944 but officials believe that when casualties from two of the hardest-hit areas of Palu – Balaroa and Petobo – are determined, that number could almost triple.
Those searching the ruins of the villages fear that thousands may have been swallowed up by the ground when the earthquake caused liquefaction, causing the solid surface of the ground to turn to liquid, engulfing homes in the mud.
“Based on reports from the heads of Balaroa and Petobo, there are about 5,000 people who have not been found,” said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for Indonesia’s disaster agency.
“Nevertheless, officials there are still trying to confirm this and are gathering data. It is not easy to obtain the exact number of those trapped by landslides, or liquefaction, or mud.”
Hopes of finding survivors ten days after the double disaster struck the Indonesian island have all but faded, but Thursday will be the official deadline for recovering bodies. After that people will be deemed missing, presumed dead.
In Balaroa, an entire government housing complex, home to over a thousand families, crumbled when the ground beneath it turned to liquid mud. The number of bodies lying beneath the mound of rubble, metal and mud is unknown.
Abdul Maruf, 40, was just stepping out of his house to join Friday evening prayers when he felt it. “Earthquake, get out!” he shouted to his wife and young children. “We got out and then the house crumbled to the ground about 15 seconds later.”
For more read the full of article at The Guardian
