Palu city in Central Sulawesi after the tsunami (Photo: AFP/VNA)
Jakarta (VNA) – Many areas inIndonesia’s Central Sulawesi province remain out of reach as communicationssystem has yet to be restored and road systems were damaged.
Spokesman of the Indonesian National Board forDisaster Management (BNPB) Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said Donggala is stillunreachable because communications has been cut off.
A team has been dispatched to the area, headded, saying the number of victims was likely to increase because rescue teamshave yet to reach other affected areas.
[Indonesia: Death toll from earthquake, tsunami amounts to 384]
Earthquakesand tsunami damaged electricity and communications networks in the region, andthe BNPB has yet to connect with Donggala, the nearest residential area to thequake’s epicentre.
Sutopo said the earthquake had knocked out sevenpower stations owned by state electricity company PLN in Palu and Donggala.There are 276 base network stations that stopped working.
He noted that fixing the electricity and communicationnetworks should be a priority right now, besides evacuating people. OnSeptember 29 morning, the PLN managed to power up two of the power stations.
Airplanes carryingnecessities were mobilised to support victims. However, there are difficulties as Palu city’s airport wasclosed after its runway and air traffic control tower were damaged.
Indonesia has mobilised military aircraft totransfer necessities to local people. Road traffic in east and south areas to Palu were also interrupted.
At least 384 people are dead, 29 missing and 540injured as rescue teams scoured the ravaged city of Palu, Central Sulawesi, on September29, a day after strong earthquakes and tsunami hit the region.
A series of earthquakes in July and Augustkilled nearly 500 people on the holiday island of Lombok, hundreds ofkilometres southwest of Sulawesi.
Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fireand is regularly hit by earthquakes. In 2004, a big earthquake off the northernIndonesian island of Sumatra triggered a tsunami across the Indian Ocean, killing220,000 people in 13 countries, including more than 168,000 in Indonesia.-VNA
