Watching the response to the earthquake and tsunami in Palu I think that we are going down the same track as we did in the Boxing Day tsunami.
Everybody flying in insignificant amounts of aid in military aircraft to feed a population of over 300,000 who by my calculations would need about 60 tonnes of rice per day alone.
Indonesia has barges of 5000 tonnes with ramps up the Whazoo. Balikpapan, an offshore oil base is only about 200 miles away. Indonesia has all the vessels found in the offshore oil industry and a large Navy. I once had to take in tow an Indonesian accomodation barge where the tug towing it got into difficulties. The barge had accomodation for 400 complete with gyms etc.
Getting heavy earth and material handling equipment was a priority as was food and medical assistance and supply by shipping given the distances involved would have been much more efficient.
It will not be the same as the Boxing Day tsunami that hit Phuket and surrounding area.
There are no western tourists involved here. Maybe the odd back packers on the way to/from the Tana Toraja highlands.
But I do agree that there are plenty of barges, tugs, landing crafts, ferries and accommodation barges, as well as excavators and heavy trucks available just across the Makassar Strait, in Balikpapan and Samarinda. The fact that it is different provinces comes into it, but it should be possible for the central Government to cut through that, if they tried.
Looking it up in local media I found that Balikpapan was preparing for a large number of people to be brought there:
I was also wondering why all these ships boats were not activating in stead of all the talk about road transport from Makassar, over 300 km. to the south.