Damaged roads and bridges, power outages and lack of heavy equipment plagued rescuers on Saturday after a powerful earthquake killed at least 46 people and injured hundreds on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.
The operations were focused on eight places in the city of Mamuju, which was hit the hardest, where people were still trapped after the quake of early Friday at 6.2 magnitude, Saidar Rahmanjaya said.
AT LEAST 34 DEAD IN INDONESIA Tremor
Cargo planes carrying food, tents, blankets and other supplies from Jakarta landed late Friday for distribution in temporary shelters. Yet thousands of people spent in public in fear of aftershocks and a possible tsunami.
Raditya Jati, spokeswoman for the National Disaster Response Agency, said rescuers had so far recovered the bodies of 37 victims in Mamuju and nine in the neighboring Majene district.
At least 415 homes in Majene were damaged and about 15,000 people were relocated to shelters, Jati said.
Bodies found by rescuers were sent to family members at the police hospital for identification, West Sulawesi police spokesperson Syamsu Ridwan said.
He said more than 200 people in Bhayangkara Police Hospital and several others in Mamuju alone had received treatment. Another 630 injured in Majene.
Among those pulled alive was a young girl who, along with her sister, got stuck in the wreckage of a house.
The girl was seen in a video released by the disaster agency on Friday to shout for help. She was treated in a hospital.
She identified herself as Angel and said that her sister, Catherine, who does not appear in the video, was lying next to her under the rubble and still breathing.
An Indonesian soldier helps a woman carry her baby on their way through an earthquake-stricken area near Mamuju, West Sulawesi, Indonesia, on Saturday, January 16, 2021. (AP Photo / Yusuf Wahil)
The fate of Catherine and other family members was unclear.
The quake caused landslides in three places and blocked a highway connecting Mamuju with Majene. The power and telephone lines were down in many areas.
Mamuju, the capital of the Western Sulawesi province with nearly 75,000 people, was littered with rubble from collapsed buildings. An office building was nearly blown up by the earthquake and a shopping mall was reduced to a crumpled hulk. A large bridge collapses and patients with droplets lie on folding beds under canvas tents outside one of the damaged hospitals.
Two hospitals in the city were damaged and others were overwhelmed.
Many survivors said help had not yet reached them due to damaged roads and interrupted communications.
A video from a TV station showed villagers in Majene, some with machetes, stopping motor vehicles with assistance. They climb on a truck and throw boxes of instant noodles and other supplies to dozens of people scrambling to get them.
Residents view the ruins of a building damaged by an earthquake in Mamuju, West Sulawesi, Indonesia, on Saturday, January 16, 2021. (AP Photo / Yusuf Wahil)
Two ships sailed to the devastated areas of the nearby cities of Makassar and Balikpapan with rescuers and equipment, including excavators.
The state-owned company AirNav Indonesia, which oversees aircraft navigation, said the quake did not significantly damage the runway or control tower of Mamuju Airport.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo said on Friday that he had instructed his ministers and disaster and military officials to coordinate the response.
In a telegram sent by the Vatican on behalf of Pope Francis, the pope “expressed deep solidarity with all those affected by this natural disaster.”
The pope prayed for “the rest of the dead, the healing of the wounded and the comfort of all who mourn.” Francis also encouraged those who pursue search and salvation effects, and he cried out “the divine blessings of power and hope.”
International humanitarian missions, including the Water Mission, Save the Children and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, have said in statements that they are working together in efforts to alleviate people in need.
Indonesia, home to more than 260 million people, is regularly hit by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis due to its location on the Ring of Fire, an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific basin.
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In 2018, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.5 in Palu on the island of Sulawesi caused a tsunami and collapsed ground in a phenomenon called liquefaction. More than 4,000 people were killed, including many who were buried when entire neighborhoods were swallowed up in the fallen ground.
A massive 9.1 magnitude earthquake on the island of Sumatra in western Indonesia in December 2004 caused a tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries.