Indonesia disaster survivors search debris for food, drinks

PALU, Indonesia (AP) — “Awesome Indonesia,” a young man shouted sarcastically as a crowd of people, some pushing their arms elbow deep into a jumbled pile of sodden food and debris, searched for anything edible in the shell of a warehouse that tsunami waves had pounded.

Clambering over the reeking pile or staking out a patch of territory, the people pulled out small cartons of milk, soft drinks, rice, sweets and painkillers. One man digging out packets of biscuits had half submerged himself in the mess.

They had come from devastated neighborhoods and elsewhere in the remote Indonesian city of Palu, which was hit by a magnitude 7.5 earthquake and powerful tsunami on Friday. They were young and old, middle class and poor, university students and sullen young men.

“We came here because we heard there was food,” said Rehanna, a 23-year-old student, wearing a bright red motorcycle helmet. “We need clean water, rice.”

She pulled out a prize — a packet of red rice wedged beneath a plank.

She’d come from Balaroa, a neighborhood of several hundred houses in Palu that was turned upside down by the quake and where residents still remain buried beneath the rubble.

“I’m very angry,” she said about the lack of aid. “I know the assistance is coming, but the distribution is very bad.”

Officials say more than 1,200 people were killed in the twin tragedies that hit Palu and the surrounding district of Donggala on Sulawesi island. The death toll is expected to rise.