paluearthquake - Tumblr blog

[paluearthquake]

'Everything is broken': Healthcare after the Palu disaster

A month since the 7.5 quake and tsunami, poor sanitation and dirty conditions fuel sickness.

Vast area of disaster

"We have a lot of trouble reaching people here. People aren’t focused in one place, they’re spread out all over," said Viktor, a doctor at an Indonesian Red Crescent clinic.

"Even if we want to use our mobile clinic, we have to do long surveys and comb through villages."

Undata Hospital, Palu's biggest, fears more severe aftershocks will bring more victims, so the hospital authorities have kept the bright orange emergency tents that were erected around the hospital in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, said director of services Amsyar Praja.

Some 45 health facilities were damaged in the double disaster and nearly 4,500 people seriously injured, according to an official update this week.

While medical cases have mostly followed the typical post-disaster pattern - severe wounds and broken bones in the first week and illnesses like diarrhoea and respiratory infections after that - there are cases that uniquely common to Palu.

"Now we have a lot of wound infections, too, because people live in the unsanitary tents," Praja said. "The toilets are often not clean and sanitation is a problem."

Water problems

The Indonesian Red Cross is managing sanitation in the farthest areas of the province, such as Donggala, where water supply has still to be restored. They’ve built 35 bathrooms and distributed 1,288 hygiene kids to those in need.

"Sometimes we can't go by road, so we have to hike the mountains for two hours," said the organisation's director of disaster management Rafiq Anshori. "Eighty percent of houses are destroyed, [and while] there is water it isn't distributed well, so the bathrooms and showers are very unclean."

The Indonesian arm of Save The Children, Yayasan Sayangi Tunas Cilik, has established three centres around the region where workers teach hygienic practices through games and other activities.

"We try to support them - maybe to forget is difficult, but how they can get back to normal," senior operations manager Aduma Situmorang told Al Jazeera. "It's hard for them to understand everything, but things like 'what you should do if there's an earthquake', we will include that in psychosocial support."

Trauma

Volunteer groups are also focussing on mental health, especially with children.

"Twenty kids need help forgetting their trauma," said volunteer nurse Dewi Koesuma, 22, after she arrived at an evacuation centre set up among coconut trees in Lende village, where several people had lost their lives beneath falling houses, and homes had been destroyed by the tsunami.

"But they aren't thinking about long-term problems, only the short-term like food because there is so little."

Didik Wahyu Pratam, a volunteer with a local Palu youth group, holds sessions for kids with a team of students. They are focusing their attention on the worst-hit areas - the villages where the earth swallowed entire neighbourhoods as the quake destablised the soil and children lost friends, parents and entire families.

"Our way is to give them games and lessons so they forget what happened a few weeks ago," 22-year-old Wahyu said. "And besides the kids, we are also victims and it’s so much fun to play with the kids, that it helps us too."

The state of emergency that was declared in the wake of the disaster ended on Thursday, but the local health office has extended free services until the end of the year, because hospitals and clinics are still struggling with inadequate equipment and thousands remain without reliable health facilities.

'Everything is broken' 

Anutapura Hospital is waiting for the city's health office to replenish its broken medical equipment.

But its medics are also struggling to work amid fallen masonry-cracked walls and crooked walkways.

https://youtu.be/DtAQAB1z3zc

A few minutes after the quake, the entire nursing wing collapsed on itself, splitting the six-floor hospital in half. Ten people were trapped inside and crushed. By the time the last four were found a week later, their bodies couldn’t be identified.

"We started working again last Saturday, but definitely not at normal capacity," Anutapura deputy director Herry Mulyadi told Al Jazeera. Many of the staff are too frightened to work in the damaged building, but demand is such that even though the hospital has rented a nearby school room and apartment building, it still has to turn away between 100 and 200 people every day.

[paluearthquake]

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2018/10/10/survivors-of-land-tsunami-hit-sigi-refuse-to-return-home.html

Sigi Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) head of rehabilitation and reconstruction Gayus Sampe said that currently there are 190,180 quake survivors staying in shelters across 12 districts in Sigi, namely Biromaru, Dolo, South Dolo, West Dolo, Marawola, Kulawi, South Kulawi, Lindu, Pipikoro, Konovaro, Kinovaro, Palolo and Nokilaki.

Some of the displaced residents refuse to go home even though their houses are undamaged or are only slightly damaged, Gayus said as quoted by Antara on Wednesday.

They choose to stay in the shelters because of recurring aftershocks, he added.

[paluearthquake]

Aftershock https://youtu.be/EdZ04Vvkj7Q

[paluearthquake]

[paluearthquake]

The earthquake and ensuing tsunami that devastated Central Sulawesi resulted in at least Rp 13.82 trillion (US$911 million) in economic losses, according to National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) data.

As of Sunday, 2,256 people have been killed, 4,612 injured and 223,751 displaced from their homes as a result of the disasters that hit the regions of Palu, Donggala, Sigi, and Parigi Moutong. 

Around 68,451 houses, 327 places of worship, 265 schools, 78 offices and 362 shops were also damaged in the quake.

"We expect the losses and damage caused by the disasters to continue to increase, since the data we are using are temporary in nature," BNPB spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said in a statement on Sunday. 

The Rp 13.82 trillion in economic losses consisted of Rp 1.99 trillion in lost income and Rp 11.83 trillion in physical damage.

[paluearthquake]

October 15th 2018 updated map from WFP.org #worldfoodprogramme

[paluearthquake]

Indonesia has the world's biggest Muslim population but also pockets of Christians and other religions, including on Sulawesi island.

The indonesian national disaster agency says more than 148 million Indonesians are at risk in earthquake-prone areas and 3.8 million people also face danger from tsunamis, with at most a 40 minute window for warning people to flee.

[paluearthquake]

Describing the response of local Salvationists and volunteers, he commends the ‘high spirit’, particularly of young people who went out – in challenging conditions – to search for people who had been reported as missing. ‘They have been strong in these days – this is one of the greatest positive [pieces of] news I’ve seen.’

Asked how people around the world can help The Salvation Army’s response in Palu, Lieut-Colonel Tampai responds: ‘Prayers would be the first.

[paluearthquake]

Red Cross spokeswoman #AuliaArriani explained that with no heavy machinery operating in Sigi, there is no way to lift the concrete church rubble and search for more survivors and casualties.

Arriani separately told AFP that "the most challenging problem is walking in the mud for an hour-and-a-half while carrying the bodies to an ambulance."

Media: Red Cross spokespeople

Aulia Arriani +62 816-795-379 from PMI

Husni +62 811-1901-695 from IFRC

[paluearthquake]

When a massive earthquake and tsunami hit the Indonesian island of Sulawesi last Friday, residents were preparing for an annual weekend festival that draws a half-million tourists to the coast of Palu. But instead of enjoying cultural rituals, traditional music, and a paragliding competition along the beach, Christian leaders in Central Sulawesi province were suddenly coordinating relief efforts for the tens of thousands of people displaced by the disaster.

Their churches, mostly shaken but still standing after the 7.4 magnitude quake, became places of refuge for their congregations as well as their Muslim neighbors. 

[paluearthquake]

undefined

[paluearthquake]

undefined

[paluearthquake]

undefined

https://youtu.be/LKnMZYEWFtY

[paluearthquake]

undefined

https://youtu.be/FVqg8QagMjM

[paluearthquake]

The Selfless Medical Worker

Medical worker Abdi Rahmadi, who went to work minutes after the quake hit, had no contact with his family for the first three days and did not know they had survived.

But he worked on regardless, helping others in urgent need.

"The situation was pretty scary. People kept asking for help. Hundreds of people," he said.

"This is a calling. I wanted to help other victims who got hit by the earthquake."

Editor's note: The paragraph title is by the blog editor, while the paragraph is an extract of a news article by David Lipson. He is the Indonesia correspondent for ABC Australia. Read more:

[paluearthquake]

The Undying Human Spirit

This Blog is an attempt to chronicle the undying human spirit in the face of catastrophic "Acts of God". The blog profile picture shows Anisa Cornelia rests after being treated at a medical tent in Palu.(AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Blog editor's contact: