Fears hundreds more dead in Indonesia tsunami
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Pastor Dale Morgan
Oct 28, 2010, 5:20:52 AM10/28/10
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Perilous Times
Fears hundreds more dead in Indonesia tsunami
By KRISTEN GELINEAU and ACHMAD IBRAHIM
The Associated Press
Thursday, October 28, 2010; 5:11 AM
MENTAWAI ISLANDS, Indonesia -- Rescuers searching islands ravaged by a tsunami off western Indonesia fear the death toll of more than 300 is likely to climb because hundreds of missing people may have been swept away, officials said Thursday.
An island rescue official who survived the wave described villages flattened down to their foundations, while elsewhere in Indonesia, villagers held a mass burial for some of the 33 people killed when one the country's most volatile volcanos erupted.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was to meet Thursday with survivors of the twin catastrophes, which struck within 24 hours in different corners of the seismically charged region, severely testing his disaster-prone nation's emergency response network.
Officials say a multimillion dollar warning system installed after the monster 2004 quake and tsunami broke down one month ago because it was not being properly maintained.
In the tsunami-ravaged Mentawai islands, search and rescue teams - kept away for days because of stormy seas and bad weather - found roads and beaches with swollen corpses lying on them, according to Harmensyah, head of the West Sumatra provincial disaster management center.
Some wore face masks as they wrapped corpses in black body bags on Pagai Utara, one of the four main islands in the Mentawai chain located between Sumatra and the Indian Ocean. Huge swaths of land were underwater and houses lay crumpled with tires and slabs of concrete piled up on the surrounding sand.
At least 311 people died as the tsunami washed away hundreds of wooden and bamboo homes in 20 villages, displacing more than 20,000 people, said Ade Edward, a government disaster official.
Harmensyah said the teams were losing hope of finding the more than 370 people still missing since the wall of water, created by a 7.8-magnitute earthquake, crashed into the islands on Monday.
"They believe many, many of the bodies were swept to sea," he said.
On Thursday, more than 100 survivors crowded into a makeshift medical center in the town of Sikakap on Pagai Utara. Some still wept for loved ones lost to the 10-foot (3-meter) wave as they lay on straw mats or sat on the floor Thursday, waiting for medics to treat injuries including broken limbs and cuts.
Local rescue official Hermansyah, who survived the earthquake and wave that hit Sikakap because he was on higher ground socializing with friends, said he began traveling to other areas Tuesday and found several villages completely flattened.
"Not even the foundations of houses are standing. All of them are gone," said Hermansyah, who like many Indonesians uses a single name. "There must have been many people swept away to the Indian Ocean."
He added that the devastation he saw indicates the wave could have been higher than previously reported in some areas - estimated it could even have been more than 20 feet (6 meters) high.
About 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) to the east in central Java, the Mount Merapi volcano was mostly quiet but still a threat after Tuesday's eruption that sent searing ash clouds into the air, killing at least 33 people and injuring 17, said Agustinus, a doctor at the local health department who also goes by one name.
Residents from the hardest-hit villages of Kinahrejo, Ngrangkah, and Kaliadem - which were complete decimated in Tuesday's blast- crammed into refugee camps. Officials brought surviving cows, buffalo and goats down the mountain so that they wouldn't try to go home to check on their livestock.
Thousands attended a mass burial for 26 of the victims 6 miles (10) kilometers from the mountain's base. They included family and friends, who wept and hugged one another as bodies were lowered into the grave in rows.
Among the dead was a revered elder who had refused to leave his ceremonial post as caretaker of the mountain's spirits. He was buried in a separate funeral Thursday.
---
Associated Press writers Slamet Riyadi at Mount Merapi and Irwan Firdaus in Jakarta contributed to this report.
Fears hundreds more dead in Indonesia tsunami
By KRISTEN GELINEAU and ACHMAD IBRAHIM
The Associated Press
Thursday, October 28, 2010; 5:11 AM
MENTAWAI ISLANDS, Indonesia -- Rescuers searching islands ravaged by a tsunami off western Indonesia fear the death toll of more than 300 is likely to climb because hundreds of missing people may have been swept away, officials said Thursday.
An island rescue official who survived the wave described villages flattened down to their foundations, while elsewhere in Indonesia, villagers held a mass burial for some of the 33 people killed when one the country's most volatile volcanos erupted.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was to meet Thursday with survivors of the twin catastrophes, which struck within 24 hours in different corners of the seismically charged region, severely testing his disaster-prone nation's emergency response network.
Officials say a multimillion dollar warning system installed after the monster 2004 quake and tsunami broke down one month ago because it was not being properly maintained.
In the tsunami-ravaged Mentawai islands, search and rescue teams - kept away for days because of stormy seas and bad weather - found roads and beaches with swollen corpses lying on them, according to Harmensyah, head of the West Sumatra provincial disaster management center.
Some wore face masks as they wrapped corpses in black body bags on Pagai Utara, one of the four main islands in the Mentawai chain located between Sumatra and the Indian Ocean. Huge swaths of land were underwater and houses lay crumpled with tires and slabs of concrete piled up on the surrounding sand.
At least 311 people died as the tsunami washed away hundreds of wooden and bamboo homes in 20 villages, displacing more than 20,000 people, said Ade Edward, a government disaster official.
Harmensyah said the teams were losing hope of finding the more than 370 people still missing since the wall of water, created by a 7.8-magnitute earthquake, crashed into the islands on Monday.
"They believe many, many of the bodies were swept to sea," he said.
On Thursday, more than 100 survivors crowded into a makeshift medical center in the town of Sikakap on Pagai Utara. Some still wept for loved ones lost to the 10-foot (3-meter) wave as they lay on straw mats or sat on the floor Thursday, waiting for medics to treat injuries including broken limbs and cuts.
Local rescue official Hermansyah, who survived the earthquake and wave that hit Sikakap because he was on higher ground socializing with friends, said he began traveling to other areas Tuesday and found several villages completely flattened.
"Not even the foundations of houses are standing. All of them are gone," said Hermansyah, who like many Indonesians uses a single name. "There must have been many people swept away to the Indian Ocean."
He added that the devastation he saw indicates the wave could have been higher than previously reported in some areas - estimated it could even have been more than 20 feet (6 meters) high.
About 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) to the east in central Java, the Mount Merapi volcano was mostly quiet but still a threat after Tuesday's eruption that sent searing ash clouds into the air, killing at least 33 people and injuring 17, said Agustinus, a doctor at the local health department who also goes by one name.
Residents from the hardest-hit villages of Kinahrejo, Ngrangkah, and Kaliadem - which were complete decimated in Tuesday's blast- crammed into refugee camps. Officials brought surviving cows, buffalo and goats down the mountain so that they wouldn't try to go home to check on their livestock.
Thousands attended a mass burial for 26 of the victims 6 miles (10) kilometers from the mountain's base. They included family and friends, who wept and hugged one another as bodies were lowered into the grave in rows.
Among the dead was a revered elder who had refused to leave his ceremonial post as caretaker of the mountain's spirits. He was buried in a separate funeral Thursday.
---
Associated Press writers Slamet Riyadi at Mount Merapi and Irwan Firdaus in Jakarta contributed to this report.
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