In a family home in Palu, near the epicentre of the Sulawesi earthquake, a former Australian Army firefighter and combat first aider has set up camp.
Andrew Strunk is a member of Disaster Response Group (DRG), an NGO that sends highly mobile 'backpacker medics' and support staff to humanitarian emergencies. Unlike larger organisations, they are able to respond within hours and work unsupported for many days, in some cases hiking into remote villages.
Founded in 2011, they worked in Nepal after the 2015 earthquake, and in Bangladesh last year after hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled Myanmar.
On Wednesday morning, Andrew flew into Palu, a small city about 1,500 km northeast of the capital, Jakarta. The magnitude 7.5 quake had damaged an estimated 65,000 homes and displaced at least 60,000 people.
The flight into Palu was one of the first after the airport reopened. Andrew went straight to the governor's house to organise a vehicle, fuel and a base of operations ahead of the arrival of five DRG paramedics on Friday. The quake had triggered massive tsunami waves, destroying roads and bridges and cutting off people from emergency help.
"At the moment I'm sitting on the floor of the courtyard of a local family house in Palu," he told Hack on Thursday morning (Australian eastern time).
"They've kindly offered to provide us with a base for operations. We're just getting our gear ready for the day and we're about to head out to Donggala on motorbike to do a bit of reconnaissance of that area there."
It's the worst devastation I've ever seen. The sheer size of the land shift - entire houses dropped 3-4 metres from their neighbours and then lifted back up again.
Where the fault line ran through, the entire area has been completely wiped out. I think that's where a lot of casualties are coming from. There are cautious estimates another 1,000-2,000 people are buried beneath the rubble."
'We carry everything we need on our backs'
Donggala is a city of 300,000 north of Palu and even closer to the epicentre. There are reports of bodies floating in the sea, houses in ruins, and mosques turned into temporary morgues, but at this stage information is still scarce.
Because of the lack of reliable information, relief has been slow to arrive.
In the days since the earthquake, the estimated death toll rose from a few dozen to many hundreds. The official count has since passed 1400.
The UN estimates some 200,000 people need assistance.
On Tuesday, Australia said it would send 50 medical professionals as part of a $5 million aid package. An Australian air force Hercules is expected to arrive in Palu on Thursday afternoon with equipment to build shelters.
Andrew told Hack that DRG was able to provide a "stop-gap operation" before the government and larger NGO relief efforts swung into action.
He said DRG can also reach people who have not travelled to the aid tents.
"When something goes wrong large organisations such as the NSF and the Red Cross, they'll come in set up larger clinics to help government authorities," he said.
"Most people urgently seeking treatment will make their way to some sort of higher treatment facility but lot of people get missed particularly in the remote areas.
"As backpacker medics we carry everything we need on our backs.
"We will drive if we can, and we also have the ability to hike in.
"We carry our own sleeping gear, our own water purification, our own food, stove, and can go quite mobile on overnight camp trips if needed, such as in remote hard hit areas where people might not have the ability to get towards an urban centre and get treatment."
'A little bit more tension here than I've felt before'
DRG staff are volunteers and pay for their own flights. Fundraising goes towards operational costs, and no-one gets paid. Many have a military background, and looking to use their training.
Andrew served in East Timor and PNG as a firefighter and engineer with the Australian Army and also worked for NATO in Afghanistan.
"In Nepal after the earthquake devastation was quite widespread," he said.
"In Bangladesh the local area was actually unaffected but there was an influx of people."
"What we're finding here is the affected population is very densely located, and that's leading to desperation.
There are reports of people becoming desperate when searching for food and water to support their families. There's definitely a little bit more tension here than I've felt before. Security is a little bit more heightened as well.
"The roads in and out of Palu - so many people are trying to leave and so many aid trucks are trying to come in - those roads are quite choked.
"Once the resources on the ground are gone, unless the aid gets to the people they're going to resort to a little bit of desperation."
Among the DRG staff due to arrive on Thursday are two paramedics and an emergency nurse from Adelaide, and another medic and an emergency nurse from Perth.
"We're starting small at moment," Andrew said.
"A team of five initially then boost numbers after we find the ability to work."