Despair fills Indonesia's buried village of Petobo as search for bodies draws to an end By Pichayada Promchertchoo
October 8, 2018
UPDATED October 9, 2018
SNIPPET:
More than 74,000 people were displaced and nearly 2,000 confirmed to have died in the double-disaster, including Talokalo’s brother and his family.
“Maybe it’s his destiny,” said the 28-year-old. Under his feet is a pile of mud and debris that has swallowed Petobo alive. What remains is an apocalyptic scene that stretches around him. Unclaimed bodies in yellow bags swarmed with flies. Crumpled cars. Twisted metal sheets. Children’s toys under crumbling heaps of rubble.
What happened at Petobo is soil liquefaction – a phenomenon where soil loses its strength and stiffness as the earthquake shakes, turning it into liquid. The result, as witnessed in Palu, is comprehensive devastation that makes it almost impossible for search and rescue workers to retrieve all the bodies from the 3-metre-deep mud.
Read more at
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/indonesia-palu-earthquake-tsunami-bodies-search-end-petobo-10806430