Amid Earthquake And Tsunami Recovery, Indonesian Volcano Erupts

Quake victims flee Palu on military aircraft as hopes of finding survivors fade fast five days after disaster.

Worldwide efforts to help survivors of Indonesia’s devastating quake and tsunami are gathering pace as concern grows for hundreds of thousands with little food and water, six days after disaster struck.

Palu, a small city about 1,500km northeast of the capital, Jakarta, and other parts of Sulawesi island were the hardest hit by Friday’s magnitude 7.5 quake that triggered six-metre-high tsunami waves.

A villager holds a child as Mount Soputan volcano spews volcanic ash at Kota Menara village in South Minahasa, North Sulawesi, Indonesia, October 3, 2018 in this photo taken by Antara Foto.

In a televised press conference in Jakarta, National Agency for Disaster Management spokesperson Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said the figure was expected to continue rising as search and rescue operations were underway with more rescuers and equipment joining in the mission.

Turkey has mobilized to help rescue and recovery efforts in Indonesia as desperation has grown four days after an natural disaster and tsunami decimated parts of the central Indonesian island of Sulawesi, leaving hungry residents grabbing food from damaged stores yesterday and begging the government for help.

We don’t know how many.

“There are some main priorities that we must tackle and the first is to evacuate, find and save victims who’ve not yet been found”, Widodo told a government meeting to coordinate disaster recovery efforts on the west coast of Sulawesi.

A man walks in front of the ship swept ashore during Friday’s tsunami at a neighborhood in Donggala, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2018. The entire disaster zone is home to 1.4 million people and at least 70,000 have gathered in evacuation sites across the island.

According to a statement by the United Nations, an estimated 66,000 homes and vital infrastructure were damaged, including roads and bridges. “Electricity is down, telecommunication is down”.

Donggala resident Farid, aged 48, pleaded for help: “Don’t centre all the aid on Palu”, he said.

“I’m particularly anxious about children who’ve been separated from their families or are now orphans because their parents have lost their lives in this tragedy”, Koteng said in a statement.

More than 500 bodies have already been buried in mass graves.

Numerous children are simply in a state of shock, said Child Protection Adviser Zubedy Koteng. I just want to help people.

Children are reportedly showing up alone at medical centres, searching for their parents.

Soputan is one of the island’s most active volcanoes and the Smithsonian Institution has identified it is a complex volcano, with free-flowing, stream-like basaltic lava, but it can also produce explosive eruptions.

In this Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2018, photo, a boy looks out from his house window damaged by an quake and tsunami in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia.