Indonesia Quake: Children Return to Schools to Clean Up, Find Friends

Local Editor

Children in the Indonesian city of Palu began returning to school on Monday to tidy up their classrooms and help gather data on how many of them will be coming back 10 days after a major earthquake and tsunami hit the city.

The 7.5 magnitude quake on Sept. 28 brought down many buildings in the small city on Sulawesi Island, 1,500 km northeast of Jakarta, while tsunami waves smashed into its beachfront.

The biggest killer was soil liquefaction, which happens when a powerful quake turns the ground into a liquid mire and which obliterated several Palu neighborhoods.

The official death toll is 1,763 but bodies are still being recovered. No one knows how many people are missing, especially in the areas hit by liquefaction, but it could be as high as 5,000, the national disaster agency said.

At one state high school, teenagers dressed in grey and white uniforms swept up broken glass in the classrooms. Trophies had fallen from a broken school showcase and the basketball court was cracked.

The students found out that they had to turn up to school through messages on Facebook and WhatsApp.

School principal Kasiludin said authorities told all teachers to show up for work from Monday to collect information on student numbers.

The school had lost at least seven students and one teacher.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team