An enormous story struck quickly on Sept 28 and unfolded at breathtaking speed – a magnitude 7.5 earthquake followed by a tsunami that washed over the Indonesian city of Palu. Communications collapsed and government reports were sketchy, but the few posts on social media provided the first indications of the enormous scope of the disaster.
The AP team shot into action to move cross-format personnel to the hardest-hit areas, texting details for the wire and squeezing out initial images for photos and video. In the days that followed, the breadth of coverage expanded to include rolling live video of rescues, grim portrayals of the retrieval of the dead, and personal stories of those whose homes and neighborhoods were now rubble.
For impressive work across all platforms despite enormous obstacles, the Best of the Week award goes to the following team:
– Jakarta staffers: office manager Elis Salim, reporter Niniek Karmini, photographers Tatan Syulfana, Dita Alangkara and Achmad Ibrahim, business writer Stephen Wright, newsperson Ali Kotarumalos, medical writer Margie Mason, videojournalist Fadlan Syam and senior producer Andi Jatmiko.
– Bangkok staffers: global enterprise writer Todd Pitman, videojournalist Tass Vejpongsa, video editor Jerry Harmer and special events coordinator Keiko Fujino.
– And: Kuala Lumpur videojournalist Syawall Zain, Manila photographer Aaron Favila, Malaysian correspondent Eileen Ng, Beijing facilities coordinator Xiao Wei Gong and Hanoi producer Hau Dinh.
Coverage was launched on multiple fronts – first by reporter Karmini and photographer Syuflana flying in to the closest functioning airport and then scrambling to find someone willing to take them on the eight-hour journey by car to Palu. Once there, their only means of communication was a messaging app. Their first reporting for all formats was then filed from Jakarta while a second wave of journalists, and then a third, were assembled and deployed.
Meticulous planning and coordination across Asia helped to get reporters, photographers, producers and video journalists to the tragic scenes. Office manager Salim constantly checked on flights that would get our teams to Palu, while also supporting the staff in Jakarta.
The whole team operated as one – contributing to all formats and doing what was needed to keep us ahead. Despite communication difficulties, information exchange was abundant between folks on the ground and folks in Jakarta, which allowed a coordinated and organized reporting under very tough circumstances.
On Oct. 10, 2018, a woman stands amid the rubble of houses and a boat, swept ashore by a tsunami in Wani village on the outskirt of Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. A 7.5 magnitude earthquake rocked Central Sulawesi province on Sept. 28, triggering a tsunami and mudslides that killed some 2,000 and left many more missing or displaced.
AP Photo / Dita Alangkara
A woman cries, Oct. 4, 2018, as she uses the recovered mobile phone of her daughter who was killed in the massive earthquake at Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. The woman did not get the chance to see the body of her daughter who had been buried earlier in a mass grave.
AP Photo / Aaron Favila
Rescuers evacuate an earthquake survivor. Sept. 30, 2018, near a damaged house following earthquakes and tsunami in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia.
AP / Arimacs Wilander
On Oct. 4, 2018, a man climbs a bridge that was destroyed in the massive earthquake and tsunami that hit Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia.
AP Photo / Aaron Favila
Rescue workers rest, Oct. 10, 2018, during a search for victims of Sept. 28 earthquake in the Balaroa neighborhood in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. Indonesia's disaster agency said that it needed tents, water treatment units, generators and transport as it responds to the Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami that killed some 2,000 people and left many missing or displaced.
AP Photo / Dita Alangkara
Residents react as the body of a tsunami victim is recovered in a village heavily damaged by Friday's tsunami in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, Oct. 3, 2018.
AP Photo / Fauzy Chaniago
A boy injured in the tsunami is carried by his relative at a makeshift hospital in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, Oct. 4, 2018.
AP Photo / Fauzy Chaniago
A man uses his mobile phone, Oct. 1, 2018, to take a photo of a car lifted into a building by a massive earthquake and tsunami at Talise beach in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia
AP Photo / Tatan Syuflana
A man carries beverages scavenged from an abandoned warehouse, in the earthquake and tsunami-ravaged area in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, Oct. 3, 2018. Clambering over the reeking pile of sodden food or staking out a patch of territory, people who had come from devastated neighborhoods and elsewhere in the remote Indonesian city pulled out small cartons of milk, soft drinks, rice, candy and painkillers from the pile as they scavenged for anything edible in the warehouse. that tsunami waves had pounded.
AP Photo / Dita Alangkara
A lone tree stands, Oct. 4, 2018, in the debris of structures wiped out by a massive earthquake and tsunami in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia.
AP Photo / Aaron Favila
A girl looks at her injured father as he lies on a hospital bed after a massive earthquake and tsunami hit Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, Oct. 4, 2018.
AP Photo / Aaron Favila
A man looks at a mosque that is surrounded by water after its bridge was broken by the massive earthquake and tsunami in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, Oct. 5, 2018. French rescuers said they were unable to find the possible sign of life they had detected a day earlier under the rubble of a hotel that collapsed in the earthquake a week earlier on Indonesia's Sulawesi island.
AP Photo / Aaron Favila
People sit outside Mutiara Sis Al-Jufri airport, Oct. 4, 2018, damaged by a powerful earthquake and tsunami in Palu, Central Sulawesi Indonesia.
AP Photo / Tatan Syuflana
People survey damage outside a shopping mall following earthquakes and tsunami in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, Sept. 30, 2018. Rescuers try to reach trapped victims in collapsed buildings as hundreds of people were confirmed dead in the tsunami that hit two central Indonesian cities, sweeping away buildings with massive waves.
AP Photo / Tatan Syuflana
Rescue workers watch as a heavy machine digs through rubble searching for earthquake victims in the Balaroa neighborhood of Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, Oct. 11, 2018. The grim search for victims buried in neighborhoods annihilated by an earthquake and tsunami was nearing its end almost two weeks after the double disasters hit the remote city.
AP Photo / Dita Alangkara
A man carries recovered items from a damaged warehouse, Oct. 2, 2018, in a tsunami-ravaged neighborhood in Donggala, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia.
AP Photo / Tatan Syuflana
People line up to board an Air Force cargo plane at the Mutiara Sis Al-Jufri airport to evacuate the earthquake and tsunami-damaged city of Palu, Central Sulawesi Indonesia, Oct. 4, 2018.
AP Photo / Tatan Syuflana
French rescuers join their Indonesian counterparts as they check for survivors in the heavily damaged Mercure hotel after a massive earthquake and tsunami hit Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, Oct. 4, 2018.
AP Photo / Aaron Favila
Character-driven stories and vivid images kept the AP far ahead of the competition, including the first investigation of the stalled tsunami warning system and live shots for video clients that were unmatched by competitors.
Of particular note was the effort by AP’s Global Media Service staffers who worked tirelessly to provide 150 video transmissions for clients – a vital business success that goes hand-in-hand with the AP’s commitment to on-the-ground reporting. Important client Australian Channel 7 wrote: “(We) would not have survived without the AP team in Palu. Such an incredible bunch of people. They fed us, made sure we had water, tried to help negotiate drivers and accommodation for us. They went above and beyond.”
“(We) would not have survived without the AP team in Palu. Such an incredible bunch of people. They went above and beyond.”
Monique Dirksz, Australian Channel 7
Among AP’s coverage highlights:
– Karmini and Pitman’s story of one survivor who found the bodies of his father and sister locked in a final embrace
– Pitman again with the tragic account of a family frantically searching for a two-year-old boy swept from his mother’s arms
– Wright providing for all formats the amazing visual and accompanying narrative of the ferry that was left stranded in a neighborhood of houses
For overcoming extreme logistics challenges and using every available tool to report and beat the competition across multiple formats, this AP team wins this week’s Best of the Week.