After Tsunami warning “all clear” thousands killed in Sulawesi, Indonesia?

The death toll from the earthquake-tsunami disaster in Sulawesi, Indonesia has more than doubled, rising to 832, with 540 injured people, according to Indonesian officials. Indonesian Vice-President Jusuf Kalla said the final number of dead could be in the “thousands.” The Indonesia geophysics agency had lifted the #tsunami warning 34 minutes after it was first issued. The “all clear” could have contributed to the high death toll.

The situation is getting worse since water and food is under short demand and looting is spreading.

Today mass burial of victims, to avoid the spread of disease are on the way. Indonesian President Widodo arrived Sunday in the city of Palu,  one of the places devastated by an earthquake and a subsequent tsunami, to personally survey the destruction.

Almost 17,000 people have sought refuge in 24 shelters, according to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency. People are trapped in the rubble in the hard-hit city of Palu and can still be heard crying for help, said Muhammad Syaugi, the head of Indonesia’s search and rescue agency.

‘What we now desperately need is heavy machinery to clear the rubble,’ Syaugi said. ‘I have my staff on the ground, but it’s impossible just to rely on their strength alone to clear this.’

A massive six-meter tsunami wave hit Palu and Donggala in central Sulawesi province followed by the Friday 7.5-magnitude earthquake. The region has experience 209 aftershocks and serious damage to the airport, roads, communications and other important infrastructure.

The Red Cross said in a statement, ‘We have heard nothing from Donggala and this is extremely worrying. There are more than 300,000 people living there. This is already a tragedy, but it could get much worse.’

Voice of America former bureau chief in Jakarta Frans Padak Demon, who was in Palu when the tsunami hit, estimates that there were as many as ‘thousands of people in Talise Beach’ around 5 pm on Friday for an event commemorating the anniversary of the city of Palu.

After his hotel collapsed, Demon told VOA’s Indonesian service that he headed for higher ground along with a woman who had suffered injuries from debris including wood from collapsed buildings picked up by the waves. He said the woman told him that four of her children had been swept away by the tsunami.