Devastated residents of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi are calling for people to pray and send well wishes as they begin to search for survivors following a 7.5 magnitude earthquake and a tsunami that killed more than 400 people.
Thirty-five-year-old mum Risa Kusuma - her world upended Friday by the one-two punch of the earthquake and a tsunami that climbed up to 3 metres in height - camped in her back garden and looked to God for some semblance of protection.
"Please pray for us," she told AFP. "Hopefully, Allah will protect me, my children, my husband, family and the people of Palu."
Social media users rallied around the hashtag 'Pray for Indonesia' and shared photos of the tsunami waves hitting the coast, leaving behind a wide swathe of destruction.
People posted before and after images of major buildings damaged or destroyed by the strength of the natural disasters.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia stands ready to help the victims after speaking to Indonesian President Joko Widodo overnight.
Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten tweeted his thoughts for family and friends.
As rescue workers struggled to reach remote areas, and the vast machinery of the international recovery effort geared up, the challenges for 350,000 residents of this small seaside city are basic and immediate: food, water and shelter.
Large queues formed as citizens waited in the tropical heat for life-giving water, and the basic sustenance of instant noodles.
Essential supplies have been diminished by a tsunami that mowed down shops, overturned cars and ripped up parts of a coastal road in central Sulawesi.
The wave pushed a tangled mess of corrugated steel roofing, timber, rubble and flotsam some 50 metres inland. Elsewhere it uprooted trees and downed powerlines.
Some 24 hours after the quake hit, the city centre was a mix of collapsed and damaged buildings, shuttered shops and cracked roads.
On a main roads, crowds of residents have turned to looting, reportedly using garden hoses to siphon petrol from underground tanks at abandoned petrol stations.
