Criticism rising over Indonesia’s disaster response

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While President Widodo asks for 'patience' from survivors, there is cause to question his government's response so far to Sulawesi's earthquake and tsunami wrought devastation

 

The extent of the death and destruction wrought by a twin earthquake and tsunami on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi became more clear on Monday as authorities and rescue workers scrambled to deliver food, aid and other supplies to victims of the disaster.

 

Authorities provisionally put the death toll at 844 on Monday, a figure based largely on destruction in the capital of Palu that is sure to rise dramatically as rescuers start to access outlying areas of the island that have been cut off by damage to connecting infrastructure.

 

Authorities have said they fear whole cities may have been swept away by a tsunami which dramatic video footage taken by residents showed crashing into coastal areas. News reports said waves as high as six meters hit the capital of Palu following Friday’s 7.5 magnitude earthquake.

 

Hundreds more were feared buried in landslides that engulfed villages in surrounding areas. “Grieve for the people of Central Sulawesi, we all grieve together,” President Joko Widodo said on Twitter late on Sunday. Vice President Jusuf Kalla had said earlier that the death toll could rise into the “thousands.”

 

Of particular concern is Donggala, a region of 300,000 people north of Palu and close to the epicenter of the quake, and two other districts, which have been cut off from communications since Friday, Reuters reported. The districts have a combined population of 1.4 million, the report said.

 

“We haven’t received reports from the three other areas. Communication is still down, power is still out. We don’t know for sure what is the impact,” Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (NDMA), told a news conference.

 

“There are estimated to be many victims in this area. Evacuation is difficult because many collapsed houses are buried in soil,” Nugroho said on Sunday evening.

 

While rescuers endeavor to locate and provide assistance to survivors, Widodo’s government is scrambling to show a competent and prompt response.

 

News agencies reported that dozens of people were trapped in the rubble of several hotels and a mall in Palu. On Monday, Widodo told reporters rescuing those trapped people was a priority.

 

“The evacuation is not finished yet, there are many places where the evacuation couldn’t be done because of the absence of heavy equipment, but last night equipment started to arrive,” Widodo said to reporters. He said the government was sending “as much food supplies as possible” by military transport aircraft from the national capital.

 

But critical questions are rising in particular over why the meteorological and geophysics agency, known as BMKG, issued a tsunami warning soon after the quake hit, but lifted it 34 minutes later. Officials have claimed since that the tsunami warning was still in place when the killer wave hit coastal areas.

 

Videos of the wave as it hit Palu taken by residents in high rise buildings showed people on the beach and beachside roads apparently unaware as the massive water surge approached.

 

Those images harked to the December 26, 2004 tsunami caused by an earthquake off the coast of Sumatra that killed 120,000 people in Indonesia, largely in the northern Aceh province. The lack of early warning systems contributed to the high death toll in that disaster.

 

Other critical questions surround why warning systems established in the wake of that disaster appear to have failed to warn citizens on Friday. NDMA’s Nugroho told reporters that none of the tsunami buoys used to detect the waves had been operational since 2012 due to a lack of funding.

 

Widodo’s government is bidding to appear more responsive in the disaster’s aftermath, so far with mixed results. On Sunday, the president visited a housing complex smashed by the quake while calling on survivors for “patience” as assistance started to trickle into affected areas that were still being rattled by aftershocks.

 

“I know there are many problems that need to be solved in a short time, including communications,” he said. He assured residents that the ruins would be rebuilt, according to reports.

 

The Jakarta Post said in a commentary that while disaster-related authorities say public awareness campaigns on natural disasters have continued for years, including in Central Sulawesi, it was evident in how easily buildings collapsed that leaders and city planners had not implemented earthquake-resistant building codes and standards.

 

At the same time, there are risks that the disaster’s aftermath could tilt towards anomie amid rising reports, including videos posted to social media, of widespread looting.

 

Television images showed scores of residents shouting “we’re hungry, we need food” as soldiers distributed rations from a truck in one neighborhood, while footage from elsewhere showed people making off with clothes and other items from a wrecked mall, Reuters reported.

 

Internal Affairs Minister Tjahjo Kumolo said he had ordered authorities to help people get food and drink and businesses that suffered from looting would be compensated. The apparent official condoning of looting is raising hackles with local retailers who claim that at least 40 damaged outlets have been affected.

 

“We are concerned about the government’s arrogance in allowing people to loot goods from retail outlets in Palu and Donggala, without [first] coordinating with their owners or management, or with the association,” said Roy Nicholas Mandey, chairman of the Indonesian Retailers Association, according to local reports.

 

Local residents had also stolen fuel from the trucks of state-owned oil and gas giant Pertamina, according to reports. Tjahjo has since denied he made any statement condoning looting as a means to distribute goods to affected populations.

 

On Monday, a witness quoted by Reuters said queues at petrol stations on the approaches to Palu stretched for kilometers. Convoys carrying food, water and fuel awaited police escorts to prevent pilfering before heading towards the city while a stream of residents headed out.

 

One aid worker quoted anonymously by Reuters spoke of growing lawlessness and threats of violence among survivors seeking fuel. The state energy company, Pertamina, said it was airlifting in 4,000 liters of fuel, while Indonesia’s logistics agency said it would send hundreds of tons of rice.

 

On Monday, Widodo has authorized the country to accept international assistance to deal with the aftermath, according to a tweet by Indonesia’s Investment Coordinating Board. It was not immediately clear what types of assistance the government has given priority to.

 

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, meanwhile, said the government had allocated 560 billion rupiah (US$37.58 million) for disaster recovery, media reported. But Widodo’s government will likely need to reach much deeper into its coffers to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe that increasingly risks being exacerbated by lawless chaos.

 

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