by Abu Hanifah

PALU, Indonesia, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) -- Devastation in Balaroa, a housing complex in the western part of Indonesia's city of Palu, may illustrate the horrible impacts of the powerful earthquake prior to the tsunami that swept coastal areas in the Central Sulawesi provincial capital.

The powerful quake has totally devastated Balaroa, turning the housing complex inhabited by middle-class families into piles of rubble and debris.

Asphalt roads there were uplifted, like being folded to a height of up to rooftops; many parts of them were peeled out and mixed with rubble of collapsed house structures.

Collapsed houses in the Palu's higher ground were also seen piled up in multiple layers, with cars and motorbikes buried under them.

Many residents are believed still buried under the collapsed house structures in Balaroa as most of them were inside their houses when the earthquake hit in the afternoon.

Indonesia's National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said the particular impact of the earthquake seen in Balaroa was due to "fluctuating ground" activity, leading to total devastation in the densely- populated area.

The agency said over 1,740 houses in Balaroa and surrounding areas were affected by the earthquake. Death toll in Balaroa has yet to be figured out by the authorities.

According to Palu municipal data, most of the houses inhabited by around 900 families in Balaroa housing complex collapsed in the powerful earthquake. Reports said Balaroa ground had stumbled down to 20 meters into the earth after the quake.

Under the scorching heat of the sun in the equatorial city, search teams continue to find bodies from under the piles of collapsed structures in Balaroa following the arrival of excavators assigned to dismantle and remove the rubble.

Relatives of the families in Balaroa continue to visit the devastated site, expecting to get information of their loved ones while survivors also stay there to wait for search teams to retrieve bodies of their relatives.

"All bodies we found were already decomposed," a member from mariner command unit, Sarman, told Xinhua in Balaroa on Wednesday, the sixth day since the earthquake and tsunami hit Palu on Friday last week.

He added that ambulances assigned by provincial tsunami joint mitigation command would directly deliver the bodies from the site to their families for burial should the families ask for it.

Otherwise they would be buried in a mass grave after stopover in police hospitals, he added.

A survivor said his collapsed house shifted around 150 meters due to the earthquake. He said he can recognize his former house from its TV antenna, saying the search team also had marked other fragments of his house.

"I want to see my wife for the last time no matter how her body looks like now," the 48-year-old father of two daughters, Lukman, told Xinhua as he looked at the roof of his former house.

He was waiting for an excavator to remove the rubble and house materials so as to enable the search team to retrieve the body of his wife, whose location has been marked a day earlier.

Lukman said he could not save his wife as his leg was tightly clamped by collapsed walls, adding that he and his wife were not in the same room.

"In a few seconds I realized that the ground below my feet moved upward, which lifted me up. I could see part of my house move away. I also saw fire moving around the rubble a few meters from me," Lukman said, alleging the fire came from a house whose owner happened to be cooking at that time.

Lukman said he was saved by a man after clinging on a log, struggling to stay in the surface amid swaying ground and materials that frequently hit his body. Scratches from cuts and wounds were seen on his arms and legs.

"I was about to pick up my daughters from an afternoon course. Now they are all I have," he said. He and his daughters now stayed in a tent near the devastated site, together with other survivors.

Another survivor said he had buried his grand children recovered by the search team earlier, expecting body of his wife to be retrieved by the rescue team.

"I have prepared the grave for my wife near my grand children's in a public cemetery. They will deliver my wife's body directly to the cemetery where I would wait," 66-year-old Abdul Samad Langgi told Xinhua.

He was spared from death as he happened to be in a mosque in a not-affected area to undertake afternoon prayer when the deadly event took place.

Death toll from the earthquake and tsunami in the coastal city of Palu and several surrounding cities has climbed to over 1,500 as more bodies were being retrieved by the search teams.

Indonesian authorities said the disaster has injured 2,549 people in various degrees, displaced more than 70,000 others, who are taking shelters in 147 locations, and affected over 65,000 houses.