印度尼西亞：地震遇難人數超過800，還會上升
Indonesia's President Jokowi Widodo has authorized the acceptance of international help related to the earthquake and tsunami that hit the central island of Sulawesi.
Chair of Indonesia's Investment Coordinating Board Thomas Lembong made the announcement in a tweet Monday morning.
There were 844 confirmed deaths by early Monday, with the city of Palu on Sulawesi the hardest hit.
Indonesian officials say they fear the death toll from Friday's earthquake and tsunami could soar into the thousands when rescuers are able to get to remote areas.
The airport is barely functioning, most power plants have been knocked off-line, and roads are shattered and twisted.
Touring Palu Sunday, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said one of the immediate needs is to bring in the heavy equipment needed to move large pieces of rubble.
"We didn't expect it to be like this. So we hope and pray for the communities and be patient," he told disaster victims. "We know that there are a lot of things to do urgently, but the condition is not now possible."
He told soldiers deployed to the area to be ready to work nonstop.
Television pictures from Palu show buildings, cars and trees pushed together to form mounds of wreckage.
The 7.5-magnitude quake triggered a huge tsunami with waves as high as 6 meters, which inundated the cities of Palu and Donggala.
Authorities say hundreds of people were on the beach in Palu for a festival when the earthquake and tsunami struck, sweeping many away to their deaths when the giant waves arrived.
Indonesia and its 18,000 islands are located along the Pacific Ocean's "Ring of Fire" and are frequently struck by earthquake, volcano and tsunami activity.
A 9.1-magnitude quake in 2004 off Sumatra and subsequent tsunami killed about 230,000 people in 14 Pacific countries, with about half of those deaths occurring in Indonesia.印度尼西亞總統維多多已授權接受蘇拉威西島中部島嶼地震和海嘯災難的國際援助。
印度西亞投資協調委員會主席週一早上在推特宣佈這一消息。
週一早些時候確認的死亡人數爲844人，蘇拉威西島的帕盧市受災最嚴重。
印尼官員表示，他們擔心，隨着救援人員開始能到達偏遠地區，週五發生的地震和海嘯造成的死亡人數可能會飆升至數千人。
當地機場幾乎停運，大多數發電廠都無法工作，道路則破碎而翹曲。
印度尼西亞總統維多多週日視察帕盧時說，一個迫切需要是引進能搬運大塊瓦礫的重型設備。
他對受災者說，“我們沒想到會像這樣。我們爲社區祈禱，並保持希望和耐心，”他說， “我們知道有很多事情要儘快做，但現在的狀況是不可能的。”
他對部署到當地的士兵們說，做好夜以繼日工作的準備。
帕盧的電視畫面顯示建築物、汽車和樹木被擠成一堆廢墟。
這次7.5級的地震引發了一場巨大的海嘯，海浪高達6米，淹沒了帕盧和東加拉等城市。
有關當局說，當地震和海嘯襲來時，數百人正在帕盧的海灘上參加一個節日活動，巨浪將許多人捲走。
印度尼西亞及其18,000個島嶼位於太平洋的“火環”沿線，經常遭遇地震、火山和海嘯的襲擊。
2004年蘇門答臘島發生9.1級地震，隨後的海嘯造成14個太平洋國家約23萬人死亡，其中有大約一半死於印度尼西亞。
