Surprise tsunami hits Java, kills 300
Indonesia was unable to warn island of wave
By Irwan Firdaus
ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 18, 2006
PANGANDARAN, Indonesia – A tsunami crashed into beach resorts and fishing villages on Java island yesterday, killing more than 300 people and leaving more than 160 missing after bulletins failed to reach the region because no warning system was in place.
The coastal area was spared by the devastating Asian tsunami of 2004, but many residents recognized the danger when they saw the sea recede.
Frantic tourists and villagers shouted “Tsunami! Tsunami!” as the more than 6-foot-high wave approached. Some climbed trees as others ran to higher ground to escape.
At least 23,000 people fled their homes, either because they were destroyed or in fear of another tsunami, Dudi Junaidi, an official at an emergency coordination post in the worst-hit area of Pangandaran on Java's southern coast, said today.
“We saw a big wall of black water. I ran with my son in my arms. 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.”
Anita, 20, and her husband live 30 feet from the beach in Pangandaran, a resort popular with tourists that appeared to be the hardest-hit area. In addition to her son, Anita's brother and nephews were missing.
“When the wave receded, there was total panic. Everybody was looking for everybody,” Anita said from her hospital bed at the Pangandaran medical clinic.
She said she was swept inland by the wave into a rice paddy, tossed around and dragged across asphalt before she managed to climb to safety on the roof of a house.
Regional agencies had warned that a 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck 150 miles off Indonesia's southern coast was strong enough to create a tsunami on Java. There was no warning system for those on the southern coast.
At the Pangandaran medical clinic, 46 bodies were laid out in yellow body bags, and family members were coming in to identify the dead.
At least 172 bodies had been found in Pangandaran, said local police chief Syamsuddin Janieb. In Ciamis and other nearby districts, 70 bodies were recovered, officials said. El-Shinta radio station said many other bodies were found elsewhere along Java's southern coast.
“We are still evacuating areas and cross-checking data,” Red Cross official Arifin Muhadi told The Associated Press.
Thousands of terrified residents set up camp in the hills overlooking the sea.
Boats crashed to shore, some slamming into hotels, and houses and restaurants were flattened along a 110-mile stretch of the densely populated island's southern coast.
Jan Boeken of Antwerp, Belgium, said he was sitting at a bar when his waiter started screaming.
“I looked back at the beach and saw a big wall of thundering black water coming toward us,” said Boeken, 53, who escaped with minor cuts to his head and knees. “I ran, but I got trapped in the kitchen. I couldn't get out. I got hit in the body by debris and my lungs filled with water.”
Most of the victims were believed to be Indonesians, but at least one Swedish tourist was being treated for injuries at a hospital near Pangandaran and his two sons, 5 and 10, were missing, said Jan Janonius, a Swedish Foreign Ministry spokesman.
A witness told el-Shinta radio he saw the ocean withdraw 1,500 feet from the beach a half-hour before the powerful wave smashed ashore, a typical phenomenon before a tsunami.
“I could see fish jumping around on the ocean floor,” the man said.
Witnesses said the wave came several hundred yards inland in some places. Buildings sit close to the beach in Pangandaran.
Pedi Mulyadi, 43, a 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 300 feet inland, Mulyadi said.
“Then we were hit, I think by a piece of wood,” Mulyadi said. “When the water finally pulled away, she was dead.”
Roads were blocked and power cut to much of the area. Damage and casualties were reported at several places along the miles of beach affected, officials and media reports said.
“All the houses are destroyed along the beach,” a woman, Teti, told el-Shinta. “Small hotels are destroyed and at least one restaurant was washed away.”
Indonesia has installed a warning system across much of Sumatra island but not on Java. The government has been planning to extend the warning system there by 2007.
Java was hit seven weeks ago by a magnitude-6.3 earthquake that killed more than 5,800 people, but was spared by the 2004 tsunami that killed 216,000 people, nearly half of them in Indonesia's Aceh province.
The May earthquake did not affect the part of the island hit by yesterday's tsunami, which was spawned by a quake that struck deep beneath the Indian Ocean 150 miles southwest of Java's coast.
The quake struck at 3:24 p.m., causing tall buildings to sway hundreds of miles away in the capital, Jakarta. The strength of the temblor was revised upward from magnitude 7.1 after a review by a seismologist, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The quake was followed by a series of powerful aftershocks.
After the quake, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center and Japan's Meteorological Agency issued tsunami warnings for the Indian Ocean. The tsunami struck Java about an hour after the quake, and its effects could be felt as far as Bali island and near Australia's Coco Islands.
»Next Story»
Find this article at:
SAVE THIS | EMAIL THIS | Close
Check the box to include the list of links referenced in the article.