More bodies found as death toll from Indonesia quake nears 2,000
Palu, Oct 8 : Nearly 2,000 bodies have been recovered from Indonesia's disaster-ravaged Palu city, an official said Monday, as the search for victims ended at a hotel destroyed in the powerful earthquake and tsunami.
The death toll from the twin disaster on Sulawesi island that erased whole suburbs in Palu has reached 1,944, said local military spokesman M. Thohir.
"That number is expected to rise, because we have not received orders to halt the search for bodies," Thohir, who is also a member of the government's official Palu quake taskforce, told AFP.
Authorities have said as many as 5,000 are believed missing in two hard-hit areas since the September 28 disaster -- indicating far more may have perished than the current toll.
Hopes of finding anyone alive have faded and the search for survivors amid the wreckage has turned to gathering and accounting for the dead.
The disaster agency said the official search for the unaccounted would continue until October 11 at which point they would be listed as missing, presumed dead.
But rescuers called off the search Monday at Hotel Roa-Roa, which was reduced to a tangled mess of twisted rebar and smashed concrete by the force of the quake.
The hotel emerged as an early focus of efforts to extract survivors, with seven people pulled alive from its mangled ruins in the immediate aftermath.
But nobody else was saved as the days passed, and optimism faded as corpses surfaced from the wreckage.
"The SAR (search and rescue) operation at Hotel Roa-Roa has ended, because we have searched the entire hotel and have not found any more victims," Bambang Suryo, SAR field director in Palu, told AFP.
Agus Haryono, another SAR official at the scene who confirmed the search was off, said 27 bodies were recovered from the hotel including three pulled from the debris Sunday.
Among the confirmed dead were five paragliders in Palu for a competition, including an Asian Games athlete and a South Korean, the only known foreign victim in the disaster.
Authorities believed the 80-room hotel was near capacity when the district was ravaged by a 7.5 magnitude quake and tsunami and estimated 50 to 60 people could be trapped inside.
Rescuers have struggled to extract bodies from the wreckage of Palu, a job made worse as mud hardens and bodies decompose in the tropical heat.
The government has said some flattened areas will be declared as mass graves, and left untouched.
Balaroa resident Sarjono agreed with sealing off the obliterated neighbourhood where vast numbers of bodies are believed trapped beneath the ruins.
"But only if they help us relocate elsewhere. If they don't, where will we live?" the 50-year-old told AFP near the debris of his former home.
Gopal, whose aunt and uncle were missing in Balaroa, picked through wreckage knowing just days were left to find his loved ones.
"Even if they (search teams) stop looking, we will still try to find them ourselves," said the 40-year-old who, like many Indonesians, goes by one name.
"When we can no longer do it ourselves, we leave it to Allah." Excavators and rescuers combed Balaroa on Monday, where a massive government housing complex was all but swallowed up by the disaster.
Officials say as many as 5,000 people were feared buried at Balaroa and Petobo, another decimated community.
Petobo, a cluster of villages, was subsumed when vibrations from the 7.5-magnitude quake turned soil to quicksand -- a process known as liquefaction.
Relief efforts have escalated to assist 200,000 people in desperate need. Food and clean water remain in short supply, and many are dependent entirely on handouts to survive.
Helicopters have been running supply drops to more isolated communities outside Palu, where the full extent of the damage is still not entirely clear.
The Red Cross said Monday it had treated more than 1,800 people at clinics and administered first aid to a similar number in the immediate disaster zone.
Indonesia sits along the world's most tectonically active region, and its 260 million people are vulnerable to earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions.
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High-rise curbs choking Bengaluru growth, says Shivakumar; seeks parity with other metros
New Delhi/Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Wednesday said high-rise development in Bengaluru is being severely constrained due to restrictions imposed by civil aviation authorities and defence establishments, impacting the city’s growth and urban planning.
He said multiple zones around key aviation and defence facilities have stringent limits on building heights, making it difficult to accommodate the city’s expanding population and infrastructure needs.
“High-rise development in Bengaluru city is becoming increasingly restricted. We are unable to widen roads much either. On one side, there is HAL Airport, on another Kempegowda Airport, then Jakkur Airfield, and the Air Force base at Yelahanka. Because of this, high-rise construction is not permitted for several kilometres around these areas,” Shivakumar told reporters in Delhi.
He said the issue was raised during a meeting with Union Civil Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu, seeking relaxation of norms to bring Bengaluru on par with other metro cities.
Highlighting the impact of these restrictions, Shivakumar said even key projects have been affected.
“I had proposed a Skydeck project and worked on it for nearly two-and-a-half years, but eventually we had to shift it… HAL imposed restrictions, saying nothing can be done within a 20-kilometre radius,” he said.
He noted that despite the introduction of premium Floor Area Ratio (FAR), developers are unable to utilise it due to these curbs.
“We have introduced premium FAR, and developers are willing to pay, but they are unable to utilise it due to these restrictions. This is affecting both development and government revenue,” he said.
Pointing out disparities with other cities, he said, “In cities like Hyderabad and Mumbai, such restrictions are comparatively less. We have requested that Karnataka be given similar norms as other states, allowing greater building heights.”
The Deputy CM said the Centre has assured a review of the issue in coordination with defence authorities.
“They are addressing it step by step… They said this problem exists in many other states as well and assured a comprehensive approach. We are continuing to exert pressure,” he said.
He reiterated that large parts of Bengaluru, especially areas around HAL and Yelahanka, remain under tight control.
“HAL and Yelahanka also fall under such restrictions,” he added.
