Seeking former lives in quake rubble

Seeking former lives in quake rubble

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Wooden beams tilted at crazy angles poke out of piles of shattered concrete littered with battered motorbikes and household items, from crumpled pots and pans to smudged notebooks and soft toys.

. Palu, Indonesia. Reuters/Jorge Silva
Kaharuddin waits for excavators to dig up a pile of concrete of his destroyed home.

After an earthquake of magnitude 7.5 hit Indonesia's coastal city of Palu, a pile of broken pink concrete is all that remains of fruit vendor Kaharuddin's home.

He stares quietly at the rubble in his hometown of Balaroa, saying it covers the body of his one-year-old daughter, one of hundreds of people missing after the Sept. 28 disaster.

"I'm just waiting here and hope that I can find my child," said Kaharuddin, 40, who goes by one name, like many Indonesians. "Or maybe I have to accept that one will have to remain buried here."

Four days after the quake, he said, rescue workers found the remains of his wife, Hastuti, still holding in her arms the bodies of their other two daughters, aged four and two.

. Palu, Indonesia. Reuters/Jorge Silva
A photograph hangs on a wall of a destroyed house hit by a tsunami.

As many as 5,000 people may still be buried under the mud, disaster relief officials estimate. Indonesia called off the search for victims on Friday, two weeks after the quake, citing health concerns, despite residents' pleas to continue.

The town in the province of central Sulawesi was among those hardest hit by the phenomenon of ground liquefaction, when the shaking earth turns soft, damp soil into a roiling quagmire, dragging thousands of houses and people under mud and asphalt.

. Palu, Indonesia. Reuters/Jorge Silva
Darmi and her brother Rusli, 43, stand outside her destroyed house.

The destructive waves of soil smashed thousands of homes, cars and buildings into each other, carrying some of them hundreds of metres from their original position within minutes.

"It felt like the earth was alive," said Darmi, 48, who saw half of her two-storey home collapse. "It was opening up, swallowing people, and then closing again. And the noise was so loud. This loud cracking ‘k-k-k-k’ sound."

. Palu, Indonesia. Reuters/Jorge Silva
Hesti Andayani sits on a pile of tiles.

Returning to Balaroa for the first time two weeks after the disaster, Hesti Andayani, 27, was shocked to find her childhood home had slid downhill, far from its original location.

"It took so long to find," she said, through tears. "I don’t know where we can live now."

Hesti, who lost her younger sister in the quake, sat on a pile of tiles that once covered part of her second-floor bedroom, surrounded by dusty jewellery and cosmetics.

"These are all the things I have left. My makeup, my necklaces, the pins for my hijab," she sobbed, referring to the headgear worn by devout Muslim women.

. Palu, Indonesia. Reuters/Jorge Silva
A car stands next to a road that was upended by the earthquake and ground liquefaction.

Searchers arrived with dozens of excavators to help dig out bodies, while some residents made frequent trips to retrieve treasured belongings from the rubble of destroyed homes.

Government district officer Yassir Garibaldi (pictured below), 43, pushed and pulled at a white car stuck under a collapsed porch.

. Palu, Indonesia. Reuters/Jorge Silva
Garibaldi stands in front of his parents' destroyed house.

"I bought this car for my parents," he said. "They’re gone now but it's still a good car. It's the only thing of theirs I can recover."

He was forced to watch helplessly as his parents and niece suffocated to death after the quake trapped them in a concrete hole flooded with water.

"I found them the morning after the earthquake," Yassir said.

"I managed to speak with them, even gave them some water to drink. But they were crushed against each other, and the water must have been cold. After a while, they just stopped breathing."

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Slideshow

A destroyed house stands in Balaroa neighbourhood.
. Palu, Indonesia. Reuters/Jorge Silva

A destroyed house stands in Balaroa neighbourhood.

A woman holds a stuffed rabbit toy after it was found at her destroyed house where she said she had lost her three children.
. Palu, Indonesia. Reuters/Jorge Silva

A woman holds a stuffed rabbit toy after it was found at her destroyed house where she said she had lost her three children.

A destroyed car lies among debris in Balaroa neighbourhood.
. Palu, Indonesia. Reuters/Jorge Silva

A destroyed car lies among debris in Balaroa neighbourhood.

Juliana Lasarudin, 48, stands next to her car in front of her destroyed house.
. Palu, Indonesia. Reuters/Jorge Silva

Juliana Lasarudin, 48, stands next to her car in front of her destroyed house.

A destroyed house is seen in Balaroa neighbourhood.
. Palu, Indonesia. Reuters/Jorge Silva

A destroyed house is seen in Balaroa neighbourhood.

Khairuddin, 49, a father of four, still has land in the area and hopes that he might be able to build a new house on it, even though the land documents were lost in the quake.
. Palu, Indonesia. Reuters/Jorge Silva

Khairuddin, 49, a father of four, still has land in the area and hopes that he might be able to build a new house on it, even though the land documents were lost in the quake.

Floor tiles of destroyed houses located near a beach hit by a tsunami.
. Palu, Indonesia. Reuters/Jorge Silva

Floor tiles of destroyed houses located near a beach hit by a tsunami.

Muhammad Nur, 27, his wife Nita Puspita, 25, and Nita's sister Widya Wijayanti, 14. "When we saw the ground moving, we just started running. I saw the asphalt rising. I was carrying my three-year-old in one arm and holding my seven-year-old sister in the other hand. I was running and I was looking for my baby, but I couldn't find her," Nita recalled. "Finally, someone suggested we looked at one of the shelters nearby and there she was. I was just so relieved and happy to find her."
. Palu, Indonesia. Reuters/Jorge Silva

Muhammad Nur, 27, his wife Nita Puspita, 25, and Nita's sister Widya Wijayanti, 14. "When we saw the ground moving, we just started running. I saw the asphalt rising. I was carrying my three-year-old in one arm and holding my seven-year-old sister in the other hand. I was running and I was looking for my baby, but I couldn't find her," Nita recalled. "Finally, someone suggested we looked at one of the shelters nearby and there she was. I was just so relieved and happy to find her."

A piece of a wall of a destroyed house is seen in Balaroa neighbourhood.
. Palu, Indonesia. Reuters/Jorge Silva

A piece of a wall of a destroyed house is seen in Balaroa neighbourhood.

"I was at my farm during the quake. After it happened, I rushed back to my house looking for my wife and my daughters. I haven't been able to find them," Ahmad, 43, said. "I don't have any tears left... I just keep dreaming about them... My daughter is the only one I have left. Everything I own, everyone else is gone."
. Palu, Indonesia. Reuters/Jorge Silva

"I was at my farm during the quake. After it happened, I rushed back to my house looking for my wife and my daughters. I haven't been able to find them," Ahmad, 43, said. "I don't have any tears left... I just keep dreaming about them... My daughter is the only one I have left. Everything I own, everyone else is gone."

Belongings are seen among rubble.
. Palu, Indonesia. Reuters/Jorge Silva

Belongings are seen among rubble.

Two men recover a portrait of their dead parents.
. Palu, Indonesia. Reuters/Jorge Silva

Two men recover a portrait of their dead parents.

A motorbike helmet lies among rubble.
. Palu, Indonesia. Reuters/Jorge Silva

A motorbike helmet lies among rubble.

Ikhmal Yudanto, 15, is helping his older brother recover his mother's car, which has been stuck in the ground since the earthquake.
. Palu, Indonesia. Reuters/Jorge Silva

Ikhmal Yudanto, 15, is helping his older brother recover his mother's car, which has been stuck in the ground since the earthquake.

A destroyed house.
. Palu, Indonesia. Reuters/Jorge Silva

A destroyed house.

Nofal Surya, 37, said he lost around 15 members of his extended family and only seven have been found. "If I want to follow my heart, of course I want the search to keep going. But I think I have to accept that I may never find them."
. Palu, Indonesia. Reuters/Jorge Silva

Nofal Surya, 37, said he lost around 15 members of his extended family and only seven have been found. "If I want to follow my heart, of course I want the search to keep going. But I think I have to accept that I may never find them."

A destroyed road.
. Palu, Indonesia. Reuters/Jorge Silva

A destroyed road.

Masdiyana, 47, has been trying to salvage items from her mother's home, picking vegetables and fruit from the garden.
. Palu, Indonesia. Reuters/Jorge Silva

Masdiyana, 47, has been trying to salvage items from her mother's home, picking vegetables and fruit from the garden.

Others must reconcile themselves to the loss of loved ones.

In Petobo, about 12 km (7.5 miles) away, Ameriyah, 56, lost three of her children, a grandchild and a son-in-law. She has accepted it is unlikely that searchers will now uncover their remains.

"We've held funeral prayers for them, so we hope their souls will be at peace," she said.

Some remain inconsolable.

"I don't know what to do next. There's nothing left for me here," said Kaharuddin, the fruit vendor still looking for his daughter's body under the pink concrete rubble of their former home.

. Palu, Indonesia. Reuters/Jorge Silva
A stopped clock, showing the time a few minutes after the earthquake.