Thousands fate still unknown
Electricity was restored and shops began reopening in Indonesia's quake and tsunami stricken city of Palu yesterday, but the fate of many thousands of people in outlying districts remained unknown nearly a week after the disaster struck.
The small city of 370,000 people has been the focus of the aid effort launched after last Friday's 7.5 magnitude earthquake and tsunami on the west coast of Sulawesi island.
International help for survivors has gathered pace, but communities in more remote areas have been cut off by broken roads, landslides and crippled communications, leaving people increasingly desperate for basic needs as aid has only just begun to trickle through.
By yesterday, the official death toll stood at 1,424, but it is widely expected to rise as most of the dead accounted for have been from Palu, while figures for remote areas are trickling in or remain unknown.
"There are so many challenges with this disaster, it's never been so bad," said Frida Sinta, an aid volunteer trying to get basic food and other supplies out to fellow residents of Palu.
The city, 1,500 km (930 miles) northeast of Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, has teetered close to chaos this week, with outbreaks of looting, but a recovery was evident as some shops and banks reopened and a major mobile phone network was back in operation.
Orderly queues formed at petrol stations after the arrival of fuel shipments and late in the day, traffic lights and televisions flickered back to life as the power came back on.
The badly affected areas in the disaster zone include some 1.4 million people. Rescue workers are pushing into outlying districts, where residents have said they have been scavenging for coconuts, bananas and cassava.
There has been scant information about conditions of many areas surrounding Palu.
While the power is back in Palu, it will take much longer for people to pick up the pieces of their lives.
International aid is beginning to arrive, including supplies from Britain and Australia, after the government overcame a traditional reluctance to accept help from abroad.
In 2004, a quake off Sumatra island triggered a tsunami across the Indian Ocean that killed 226,000 people in 13 countries, including more than 120,000 in Indonesia.
But safety measures implemented after that disaster, including tsunami warning systems, failed on Friday.
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