FIRST came the wave. Then the predators.

A week ago a ten-foot tsunami swept away much of the Indonesian city of Palu, killing, according to the latest count, more than 1500 people. Many others are feared buried in their homes or workplaces, some under a sea of mud now baked dry in the tropical sun.

Aid agencies and local authorities have turned their thoughts from the quake and tidal wave to a new and - alas - predictable threat: those who would prey on survivors.

From her base in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, Dini Widiastuti, has been trying to figure out priorities for British and international help.

She has a team on Sulawesi, the central island where Palu lies, since earlier this week. After an 18-hour trip to the port and days on the ground, they have carried out what Ms Widiastuti, an executive at charity Plan International, calls a “rapid assessment of needs”. Their conclusion: women and girls need protection; from men, not waves.

Palu, before the wave hit last Friday, had a population of around 350,000. Some 200,000 people are now homeless. A makeshift camp of an estimated 70,000 has formed.

The army - as aid supplies struggled to get through - was ordered to shoot looters. Other groups, including the Indonesian government, are working to restore order and repair roads, ports, and water, electricity and telecommunications systems. water electricity and telecommunications.

Ms Widiastuti told The Herald that Plan would “focus on the needs of children, especially girls, and women who have babies or who are lactating or pregnant. Those are the first in our concern."

The Herald:

In the matter-of-fact tones of an experienced aid worker and activist, she stressed the dangers facing survivors “This is for especially girls and women, they need privacy, for breastfeeding women or for girls to get changed,” she said. “It’s a bit awkward. As you can imagine, in the camps, if they don’t have privacy they will be more vulnerable to harassment. So we want to provide protection to them.”

Crime, including sexual crime, has haunted the scenes of previous disasters. Workers know what to expect. MsWidiastuti: “We have seen in many emergency situations that extra protection is needed.”

The Herald:

Her Plan team on the ground witnesses vulnerability first hand. “They have seen destruction, and children on their own. And these children are vulnerable. Our team could not see parents or carers for them. Some are begging.

“After almost a week now, and our team is still seeing corpses which have not been attended to. She added: “Some of the children are still traumatised.” So his her own team. One member, from Sulawesi, learned on Friday that her friend’s body had been recovered from what was left of a hotel.

Plan is one of the major UK and global charities which on Thursday teamed together as the Disasters Emergency Committee or DEC to launch a special UK appeal for Palu and neighbouring districts.

The Herald:

Plan has a thousand shelter kits - a tarpaulin, blankets and mattresses for four people. It just needs a secure logistics solution to get this to Palu from its base in Jakarta. But the DEC appeal will pa for more, for hygiene kits and drinking water. And safe places for children to draw, tell stories and learn, to get as much normality as possible. Youngsters, said Ms Widiastuti, need this to recover. Money from Britain will pay for play equipment and play schemes. “We can look at rebuilding schools later. Right now these are our immediate needs,” she added.

Another DEC charity, is also looking at creating save places for women and children.

“Children urgently need shelter and essential hygiene items to prevent the spread of diseases and contamination as families are packed into evacuation centres with limited supply of clean water,” a spokesman said.

The Herald:

Some stability and security was returning to Palu on Friday.

Some turned their thoughts to long-term regeneration. Indonesia’ vice president Jusuf Kalla, who arrived early on Friday in Palu to assess the situation, said it will take at least two years to redevelop and reconstruct the disaster zone.

Others could only use the relative clarity to come to terms with what had happened. Fitria Lontaain, her right eye puffed up, her left cheek cut, was on Palu’s beach clutching the photo ID of her husband Victor.

They had been together at the same spot when the tsunami struck, waves of, she said, six metres, dragging the couple apart.

“I thought it was a normal earthquake so I just stood there and my husband looked at me and I looked at him,” she told Sky News. “Then my husband suddenly looked behind and he saw the waves coming. And he said to me, ‘the water’s coming!’ and I tried to grab him and he tried to grab me but the water was already on us.”

The Herald:

Ms Lontaain, the TV station said, was carried a kilometre by the water, hitting trees and buildings on the way. She hopes to give her husband a funeral. She may not be able to.

Some 74 people were formally interred on Thursday. But authorities told another broadcaster, Al Jazeera, that they were not taking DNA from remains they recovered as they rushed to dispose of decaying corpses. That means victims may never be identified, their families never to know their final resting place.

On Thursday there had been a moment of hope when French rescuers, using high-tech sensors, said they had detected what they thought were signs of life. The French did not have the tools to dig deep and find more. On Friday there were no more such signs.

Donations to the DEC can be made through www.dec.org.uk