Indonesian tsunami 17 July 2006
Indonesian tsunami death toll climbs to 327
Pangandaran, July 18 (AP): Tearful parents searched for missing children and soldiers dug through the debris Tuesday of homes flattened by the second tsunami to hit Indonesia in as many years. At least 327 people were killed, officials said, with another 160 or more missing.
Bodies covered in white sheets piled up at makeshift morgues _ with the corpse of at least one woman lying on a beach long popular with local and foreign tourists.
"I don't mind losing any of my property, but please God return my son," said Basril, a villager, as he and his wife searched though mounds of rubble piled up at Pangandaran resort on Java island's southern coast.
The area hit by Monday's disaster was spared by the devastating 2004 Asian tsunami, and many residents said they did not even feel the 7.7-magnitude undersea quake that unleashed the two-meter (two-yard) -high wall of water.
But some recognized the danger when they saw the sea recede and fled to higher ground, screaming ``Tsunami! Tsunami!'' A black wave shot to shore a half hour later, witnesses said, sending boats, cars and motorbikes crashing into resorts and fishing villages and flooding areas 300 meters (yards) inland.
The death toll rose to at least 327, officials said Tuesday, with the numbers expected to grow.
"We are still finding many bodies, many are stuck in the ruins of the houses," said local police chief Syamsuddin Janieb, who said at least 181 people were killed and 85 others were missing in the Pangandaran area alone.
Most were Indonesians, but a Pakistani and Swede were among the dead, officials said. A Dutch consulate official in the city of Bandung said three Dutch nationals also were killed, but the Foreign Ministry in the Hague could not confirm that.
At least 23,000 people fled their homes, either because they were destroyed or in fear of another tsunami, so accounting for the 160 missing could take time, other officials said Tuesday.
Survivors, meanwhile, recounted their tales of horror.
"We saw a big wall of black water. I ran with my son in my arms and when I looked back, the waves were at our house, they destroyed our house," said Ita Anita, who was on the beach with her 11-month-old child and other relatives. ``The water knocked me down, my son slipped out of my hands and was taken by the water.''
Pedi Mulyadi, a 43-year-old food vendor, said he was waiting on the beach for customers when the wave struck, killing his wife, Ratini, 33. The pair were clinging to one another when they were swallowed by the torrent of water and pulled 30 meters (yards) inland, he said.
"Then we were hit, I think by a piece of wood," Mulyadi said. "When the water finally pulled away, she was dead. Oh my God, my wife is gone, just like that."
Roads were blocked and power cut to much of the area.
Indonesia was hardest hit by a 2004 tsunami that killed at least 216,000 people in a dozen nations along the Indian Ocean rim _ more than a half of them on Sumatra island's Aceh province.
Though the country started to install an early warning system after that disaster, it is still in the early stages, covering only Sumatra. The government had been planning to extend the warning system to Java by 2007.
The island was hit seven weeks ago by a 5.9-magnitude earthquake that killed more than 5,800 people, though the 180 kilometers (110 miles) of coastline hit by Monday's tsunami was not affected by that temblor.
Monday's quake struck at 3:24 p.m. around 240 kilometers (150 miles) beneath the ocean floor, causing tall buildings to sway hundreds of kilometers (miles) away in the capital, Jakarta. The region has been rattled by a series of strong aftershocks.
After the quake, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center and Japan's Meteorological Agency issued warnings of a possible tsunami in the Indian Ocean. The tsunami struck Java about an hour later and its effects could be felt as far as Bali island and near Australia's Coco Islands.
In addition to the 181 deaths tallied in Pangandaran, central Java police chief Dody Sumantiawan said at least 89 people were killed and more than 70 others missing in nearby Cilacap district.
Another 44 were found in Tasikmalaya district, and 13 in other areas, local officials said.
Indonesia is on the so-called Pacific ``Ring of Fire,'' an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.
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Tsunami Toll in Indonesia Hits 531
Times Staff WritersJuly 19, 2006
PANGANDARAN, Indonesia — Grief-stricken residents of this shattered beach community searched Tuesday for survivors of a 6-foot tsunami that wiped out coastal homes and hotels a day earlier, and the death toll rose to 531. More than 200 people remained missing as volunteers and soldiers looked for bodies in the wreckage of buildings in this popular resort town on the southern coast of Java.
The wave swept as far as 500 yards inland, destroying houses and kiosks and wiping out the ground floor of hotels that line the beach.Thousands of people fled inland to higher ground after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck about 150 miles off the coast Monday afternoon. But at least 1,000 more didn't try to flee until it was too late. Many were swept inland by the water, tumbling alongside battered boats, pieces of wood and other debris. Many survivors said they did not feel the quake, which struck about an hour before the tsunami.
Rukmana, who, like many Indonesians, uses only one name, said she was working at her small food stall at the beach when she saw people begin running. Moments later, she was swept up by the wave and washed inland. Her daughter and daughter-in-law both died; her granddaughter is missing."I did not feel any quake," said Rukmana, 40, who has taken refuge in a mosque with her husband and hundreds of others. "I just saw people run everywhere. I did not know what happened. People ran, so I just ran. There were so many people by the beach." The government had planned to establish a national tsunami warning system after a massive tsunami hit the Indonesian island of Sumatra and several other nations in December 2004, killing more than 220,000 people. More than half the victims were in the Indonesian province of Aceh. But the warning system project has stalled.Officials said Tuesday that they were alerted by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center and Japan's Meteorological Agency about 45 minutes before the wave struck Pangandaran. But Science and Technology Minister Kusmayanto Kadiman told reporters that the government did not publicize the warning because it did not want to cause unnecessary alarm. "If it did not occur, what would have happened?" he asked reporters in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital.Vice President Jusuf Kalla told reporters that there was no need to issue a warning because most people had fled inland after the earthquake."After the quake occurred, people ran to the hills," he said, "so in actual fact there was a kind of natural early-warning system."In addition to the dead and missing, more than 700 people were reported injured. Nearly 800 buildings were damaged or destroyed, along with about 1,500 food stalls and hundreds of boats and cars.Indonesia is one of the most seismically active regions in the world, with several active volcanoes and frequent earthquakes. Seven weeks ago, a magnitude 6.3 quake struck central Java, killing about 6,200 people. The death toll was high because many of the brick houses there had been built without mortar and collapsed easily.Ujang Dedin Zainuddin, 25, who had a food stall at Pangandaran beach, said he saw the wave approach and wash away his wife and 5-year-old daughter. He said he wanted to help them but the wave swept him away too, carrying him to a school. His wife's body has been found, but he is still searching for his daughter."What have the people of Pangandaran done to deserve this disaster?" he asked. "What did we do wrong? Innocent people, like my daughter, got punished. I would rather die than have them die like this. Why did this happen? Why my wife, my daughter?"Rescuers searched through the debris Tuesday in hopes of finding survivors, but the going was slow."It was hard for us, because we used only our bare hands while we had to search under the heavy walls of the hotels," said Djadjat Sudrajat of the Red Cross, whose team recovered six bodies. "There was no heavy equipment until this afternoon."Buyung Hermanto, owner of the Hotel Anisa, said he was at the hotel when he felt the quake. "I felt a very light shake, very soft," he said. A short time later, he heard a sound like thunder and went outside. Hearing someone scream from a distance, "The water is high!" he raced upstairs.Though officials estimated the wave's height at 6 feet, he said it looked nearly 20 feet high. He helped several guests and employees get upstairs and then punched a hole in the ceiling so they could climb onto the roof. The wave was about 9 feet high when it reached the building, he said."The water hit the walls of my hotel lobby, and it collapsed," he said. "It was very fast. We held on tight to the roof."He said most people did not think of a tsunami because the earthquake was so mild."Even when we know that the big tsunami happened in Aceh, and people said it would strike again somewhere else, we never knew when or where. So we did not prepare anything. We lived our life just as usual. "We did not expect that it would be like this. We thought that it was just an ordinary earthquake."
Pangandaran, July 18 (AP): Tearful parents searched for missing children and soldiers dug through the debris Tuesday of homes flattened by the second tsunami to hit Indonesia in as many years. At least 327 people were killed, officials said, with another 160 or more missing.
Bodies covered in white sheets piled up at makeshift morgues _ with the corpse of at least one woman lying on a beach long popular with local and foreign tourists.
"I don't mind losing any of my property, but please God return my son," said Basril, a villager, as he and his wife searched though mounds of rubble piled up at Pangandaran resort on Java island's southern coast.
The area hit by Monday's disaster was spared by the devastating 2004 Asian tsunami, and many residents said they did not even feel the 7.7-magnitude undersea quake that unleashed the two-meter (two-yard) -high wall of water.
But some recognized the danger when they saw the sea recede and fled to higher ground, screaming ``Tsunami! Tsunami!'' A black wave shot to shore a half hour later, witnesses said, sending boats, cars and motorbikes crashing into resorts and fishing villages and flooding areas 300 meters (yards) inland.
The death toll rose to at least 327, officials said Tuesday, with the numbers expected to grow.
"We are still finding many bodies, many are stuck in the ruins of the houses," said local police chief Syamsuddin Janieb, who said at least 181 people were killed and 85 others were missing in the Pangandaran area alone.
Most were Indonesians, but a Pakistani and Swede were among the dead, officials said. A Dutch consulate official in the city of Bandung said three Dutch nationals also were killed, but the Foreign Ministry in the Hague could not confirm that.
At least 23,000 people fled their homes, either because they were destroyed or in fear of another tsunami, so accounting for the 160 missing could take time, other officials said Tuesday.
Survivors, meanwhile, recounted their tales of horror.
"We saw a big wall of black water. I ran with my son in my arms and when I looked back, the waves were at our house, they destroyed our house," said Ita Anita, who was on the beach with her 11-month-old child and other relatives. ``The water knocked me down, my son slipped out of my hands and was taken by the water.''
Pedi Mulyadi, a 43-year-old food vendor, said he was waiting on the beach for customers when the wave struck, killing his wife, Ratini, 33. The pair were clinging to one another when they were swallowed by the torrent of water and pulled 30 meters (yards) inland, he said.
"Then we were hit, I think by a piece of wood," Mulyadi said. "When the water finally pulled away, she was dead. Oh my God, my wife is gone, just like that."
Roads were blocked and power cut to much of the area.
Indonesia was hardest hit by a 2004 tsunami that killed at least 216,000 people in a dozen nations along the Indian Ocean rim _ more than a half of them on Sumatra island's Aceh province.
Though the country started to install an early warning system after that disaster, it is still in the early stages, covering only Sumatra. The government had been planning to extend the warning system to Java by 2007.
The island was hit seven weeks ago by a 5.9-magnitude earthquake that killed more than 5,800 people, though the 180 kilometers (110 miles) of coastline hit by Monday's tsunami was not affected by that temblor.
Monday's quake struck at 3:24 p.m. around 240 kilometers (150 miles) beneath the ocean floor, causing tall buildings to sway hundreds of kilometers (miles) away in the capital, Jakarta. The region has been rattled by a series of strong aftershocks.
After the quake, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center and Japan's Meteorological Agency issued warnings of a possible tsunami in the Indian Ocean. The tsunami struck Java about an hour later and its effects could be felt as far as Bali island and near Australia's Coco Islands.
In addition to the 181 deaths tallied in Pangandaran, central Java police chief Dody Sumantiawan said at least 89 people were killed and more than 70 others missing in nearby Cilacap district.
Another 44 were found in Tasikmalaya district, and 13 in other areas, local officials said.
Indonesia is on the so-called Pacific ``Ring of Fire,'' an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.
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Tsunami Toll in Indonesia Hits 531
Times Staff WritersJuly 19, 2006
PANGANDARAN, Indonesia — Grief-stricken residents of this shattered beach community searched Tuesday for survivors of a 6-foot tsunami that wiped out coastal homes and hotels a day earlier, and the death toll rose to 531. More than 200 people remained missing as volunteers and soldiers looked for bodies in the wreckage of buildings in this popular resort town on the southern coast of Java.
The wave swept as far as 500 yards inland, destroying houses and kiosks and wiping out the ground floor of hotels that line the beach.Thousands of people fled inland to higher ground after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck about 150 miles off the coast Monday afternoon. But at least 1,000 more didn't try to flee until it was too late. Many were swept inland by the water, tumbling alongside battered boats, pieces of wood and other debris. Many survivors said they did not feel the quake, which struck about an hour before the tsunami.
Rukmana, who, like many Indonesians, uses only one name, said she was working at her small food stall at the beach when she saw people begin running. Moments later, she was swept up by the wave and washed inland. Her daughter and daughter-in-law both died; her granddaughter is missing."I did not feel any quake," said Rukmana, 40, who has taken refuge in a mosque with her husband and hundreds of others. "I just saw people run everywhere. I did not know what happened. People ran, so I just ran. There were so many people by the beach." The government had planned to establish a national tsunami warning system after a massive tsunami hit the Indonesian island of Sumatra and several other nations in December 2004, killing more than 220,000 people. More than half the victims were in the Indonesian province of Aceh. But the warning system project has stalled.Officials said Tuesday that they were alerted by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center and Japan's Meteorological Agency about 45 minutes before the wave struck Pangandaran. But Science and Technology Minister Kusmayanto Kadiman told reporters that the government did not publicize the warning because it did not want to cause unnecessary alarm. "If it did not occur, what would have happened?" he asked reporters in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital.Vice President Jusuf Kalla told reporters that there was no need to issue a warning because most people had fled inland after the earthquake."After the quake occurred, people ran to the hills," he said, "so in actual fact there was a kind of natural early-warning system."In addition to the dead and missing, more than 700 people were reported injured. Nearly 800 buildings were damaged or destroyed, along with about 1,500 food stalls and hundreds of boats and cars.Indonesia is one of the most seismically active regions in the world, with several active volcanoes and frequent earthquakes. Seven weeks ago, a magnitude 6.3 quake struck central Java, killing about 6,200 people. The death toll was high because many of the brick houses there had been built without mortar and collapsed easily.Ujang Dedin Zainuddin, 25, who had a food stall at Pangandaran beach, said he saw the wave approach and wash away his wife and 5-year-old daughter. He said he wanted to help them but the wave swept him away too, carrying him to a school. His wife's body has been found, but he is still searching for his daughter."What have the people of Pangandaran done to deserve this disaster?" he asked. "What did we do wrong? Innocent people, like my daughter, got punished. I would rather die than have them die like this. Why did this happen? Why my wife, my daughter?"Rescuers searched through the debris Tuesday in hopes of finding survivors, but the going was slow."It was hard for us, because we used only our bare hands while we had to search under the heavy walls of the hotels," said Djadjat Sudrajat of the Red Cross, whose team recovered six bodies. "There was no heavy equipment until this afternoon."Buyung Hermanto, owner of the Hotel Anisa, said he was at the hotel when he felt the quake. "I felt a very light shake, very soft," he said. A short time later, he heard a sound like thunder and went outside. Hearing someone scream from a distance, "The water is high!" he raced upstairs.Though officials estimated the wave's height at 6 feet, he said it looked nearly 20 feet high. He helped several guests and employees get upstairs and then punched a hole in the ceiling so they could climb onto the roof. The wave was about 9 feet high when it reached the building, he said."The water hit the walls of my hotel lobby, and it collapsed," he said. "It was very fast. We held on tight to the roof."He said most people did not think of a tsunami because the earthquake was so mild."Even when we know that the big tsunami happened in Aceh, and people said it would strike again somewhere else, we never knew when or where. So we did not prepare anything. We lived our life just as usual. "We did not expect that it would be like this. We thought that it was just an ordinary earthquake."
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