Survivors in Petobo, a small district in Palu city, hobble up and down a sea of wreckage. Some are looking for what is left of their belongings. Some stare blankly at where their homes once stood.
Fandy, a resident in Petobo, stands quietly a few meters from his crying wife. He says he's guarding the remains of a house which belonged to his brother, who has lost his wife and three daughters.
More than a week has passed since the twin disasters struck Sulawesi island, and death toll has continued to climb. Upwards of 2,000 bodies have been recovered by the search team, but officials do not expect the numbers to hold as thousands are still missing, and feared dead.
On top of the six-meter-high tsunami, the earthquake triggered an unusual geological phenomenon called "liquefaction". It turned dry land into mud which swallowed everything on top of it.
The 7.4-magnitude earthquake in Petobo, Palu, destroyed infrastructure and homes, leaving survivors without shelter. /CGTN Photo
In Petobo, the destruction by liquefaction was very large. The liquefied earth buried a total of 2,051 households in the district, crushing and imprisoning houses, vehicles, and inhabitants. The heat from the sun then hardened the sludge, setting the wreckage into a deadly cast.
A group from the National Search and Rescue Agency of the Republic of Indonesia - or Basarnas - was down at the scene digging through rubble and helping survivors. The group comprises of 15 experienced rescuers, all of whom specializing in search and rescue missions in remote and hostile areas. Most of them came from Jakarta; one of them proudly said that he is from Sulawesi.
Rescue operations are handled jointly by the army, the police, and the Basarnas. Yusuf Latif, spokesperson for Basarnas said that they are doing their best to cover all the affected areas by combing the site, and using information that the community is providing them.
"We are trying to (recover) as many bodies (as we can) buried or remaining in this area," he said, adding that they have only swept through about 60 percent of the devastated area.
Members of the Basarnas pose for a photo. /CGTN Photo
He says the operation is difficult and they have found as many as five bodies piled on top of each other under deep mud.
The emergency response team has been given a soft deadline of 14 days, which concludes the search-and-rescue operation on October 11. Latiff said that the decision on a deadline extension will be made by the local government.
When asked about international assistance, the rescuers said that the official position is that Indonesia doesn't require help from other nations.
CGTN tried to confirm reports of a French rescue team operating on the ground, but Basarnas explained that, while they have a good relationship with the French rescue team, no International teams participated in Petobo's rescue operation. However, the team confirmed that they received equipment and training from the French team.