‘Expect more disasters like Palu’: Why giant quakes continue to devastate poorer Asian communities

By Kok Xing Hui

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This tragedy is likely to repeat itself, for the archipelago is a hotbed of seismic activity. In the words of one of the world’s leading geologists, Kerry Sieh, Indonesia can “expect more of the same, to be perfectly cynical”.

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But communities in the area have implemented few safety measures to prepare for likely disaster.

“In our business, we call this the last mile of the race that was never run,” Sieh said. “The mile of the marathon – between getting scientific evidence collected and interpreted, and doing something with it to make societies and communities safer – never happened.

“Basically, the world is not utilising our information and they are not supporting us enough to collect it much faster, and so we can expect more Palus,” he said.

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