The death toll in Indonesia’s twin quake-tsunami disaster climbed to 1,558 with time running out to rescue survivors a week after the twin disasters struck.

Residents on Sulawesi Island’s west coast scavenged for food in farms and orchards as the government struggled to overcome shortages of water, food, shelter and fuel in a disaster zone with no power and degraded communications.

Most of the confirmed dead were in the coastal city of Palu, while losses in remote areas are yet unknown.

Communication links are down and bridges and roads have been destroyed or blocked.

In 2004, an earthquake off Sumatra island triggered a tsunami across the Indian Ocean that killed 226,000 people in 13 countries, including more than 120,000 in Indonesia.