JAKARTA, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- Authorities have accelerated relief works at quake- and tsunami-rattled areas in Central Sulawesi province as the number of evacuees soars to 223, 751 people, a senior official of disaster agency said here on Saturday.
Bodies were persistently retrieved almost every day by personnel involving in the works, albeit the search and rescue mission has been called off since Oct. 12, putting the total death toll to 2,013 on Saturday, spokesman of national disaster management agency Sutopo Purwo Nugroho revealed.
The evacuees are taking shelters in 122 evacuation centers in Palu, the provincial capital, the districts of Dinggala, Sigi and Parigi Mounthong, which were devastated by multiple powerful and shallow under-earth quakes of 6.0, 7.4 and 6.1 magnitudes and an ensuing tsunami by up to 3 m on Sept. 28, Sutopo said.
"Acceleration of the recovery from the downside risks of the catastrophe persists, particularly the efforts to comply with the basic needs of the survivors, such as medical services, infrastructure repair and normalization of the people life," he told Xinhua in a text message.
The supply of makeshift tents and education facilities remain lackluster, some students have not been back to school, said Sutopo.
To facilitate hundreds of thousands of evacuees, the official said, construction of transient barracks are getting underway now, along with the clearance of the ruins.
A total of 4,604 soldiers, police and volunteers have been dispatched in the emergency relief works, supported by a total of 251 heavy machinery equipment, he cited.
Over 5,000 people remain missing after the deadly natural disasters, according to the disaster agency.
Indonesia is prone to quake as it lies astrides on a vulnerable quake-affected areas so called "the Pacific Ring of Fire."
