Posted on 07/19/2006 3:35:53 PM PDT by blam
Indonesia death toll passes 500
People are still desperately looking for loved ones
The death toll in the Indonesian tsunami has risen to at least 520, fuelling questions over why no warning was given ahead of the disaster. Government officials said they received a warning that the island of Java was threatened by a tsunami following an underwater earthquake off the coast.
But they said they were unable to pass on the warning to coastal areas.
A fresh earthquake hit the island on Wednesday, but no injuries or major damage have been reported so far.
The epicentre of the latest quake was under the sea off Java's southwestern coast, and buildings shook in surrounding areas as far away as the capital Jakarta.
But officials at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said no new tsunami was expected.
Indonesia is still working to build an early warning system following the massive 2004 Asian tsunami.
A warning system is being installed in the western province of Aceh, where 130,000 people were killed in 2004, but the government says Java will not be covered until next year at the earliest.
The giant 2m-high wall of water which hit the resort of Pangandaran on Monday was triggered by a 7.7 magnitude earthquake.
Amateur video footage has emerged showing a black wall of water tearing towards a beach full of children.
Meanwhile, rumours of another giant wave hitting the coast caused hundreds of people to flee inland on Wednesday.
Soon after Monday's quake, US and Japanese agencies issued tsunami alerts for parts of Indonesia and Australia, but the Indonesian government says it was unable to relay the message to the coast.
And even if it had, there were no warning sirens or alarms to pass the information on to residents.
"Our system is not yet working properly. We are still developing a communication system especially for the regions," said one government scientist, Fauzi.
Peter Cameron, a Red Cross spokesman in the capital Jakarta, told the BBC the authorities had only received a warning about 20 minutes before the tsunami struck.
He said that "by the time they got it and got ready to disseminate it, the tsunami had already hit the coast".
Reminder of Aceh
JAVA TSUNAMI 17 JULY
* 0819GMT: 7.7 undersea earthquake triggers tsunami
* 0838GMT: International quake monitors send warnings, but no local alert systems in place
* 0915GMT: Waves around two metres high hit Java coast
* Damage from the tsunami has been reported along a 200km (125 mile) stretch of Java's coastline.
Police and army teams are searching affected areas with sniffer dogs and mechanical diggers.
"We are looking for people who are still missing or buried under the rubble as well as clearing the debris," said army officer Deden Rajab.
According to Maman Susanto, from the government's national disaster co-ordinating board, 275 people are still listed as missing.
Survivors in Pangandaran have been describing their terror, saying said the experience brought back memories of the 2004 tsunami.
"When I heard the word tsunami, images from Aceh flashed in my mind and like everybody else I ran and tried to distance myself from the sea as fast as possible," said Sudarmin, a 48-year-old coconut farmer.
More than 50,000 people have been displaced and are currently living in makeshift tents or on the floors of mosques.
Many people have been living in the hills since the disaster.
"I am too scared to go down," one elderly woman told the French new agency AFP.
"...The giant 2m-high wall of water which hit the resort of Pangandaran on Monday was triggered by a 7.7 magnitude earthquake. Amateur video footage has emerged showing a black wall of water tearing towards a beach full of children..."
Two meters high is only about six feet in height. It seems that one could start running up the beach towards higher ground if they saw a moderate-sized wave forming at sea. Every couple of feet must drastically increase likelihood of survival.
~ Blue Jays ~
Must be the will of Allah.
Tsunami waves are not like normal waves. A 7-foot tsunami wave is like being in the path of a 7-foot high river of water. In effect, the ocean as a whole invades the land. And the "wave" travels faster than a human can run--several times faster. It's not the height of the wave that matters, it's the force of the current. Imagine being in the path of the flow of water from a dam that breaks. What would happen to whatever was caught in the path of the water, even if it were no higher than 5 feet?
Yes, you are 100% correct. This mini-tsunami might have been racing across the ocean very quickly...but they slow drastically and increase in height as the wave approaches the shoreline.
My point is that given what they experienced in December 2004 you would think Indonesians would better recognize uncharacteristic ocean behavior and would make a run for it at the first sign of something amiss. Running from the beach and heading upstairs, into a building, atop a vehicle, or even up a tree could mean survival.
~ Blue Jays ~
It's pretty clear it was likely about 3-4 meters high.
You'd think that everybody would know that when the seawater withdraws it will come back all at once. Were any wild animals caught? The wild animals supposedly have an innate sense about this.
The Telegraph (UK)
(Filed: 19/07/2006)
A series of strong aftershocks have sent hundreds of people on the Indonesian island of Java scrambling for high ground in fear of another tsunami.
Indonesia has been hit hard by natural disasters
The four aftershocks, measuring from 4.9 to 5.4 on the Richter Scale, came as the death toll from the giant waves that hit the island on Monday rose to at least 520.
Searches are continuing for 273 people still missing after the tsunami broke on a 186-mile stretch of coast along southern Java.
The aftershocks sent some people running, while others crowded onto motorcycles or into cars and headed inland, as rumours circulated of a fresh tsunami.
Indonesian media questioned why there was no warning ahead of Monday's killer waves despite efforts to set up early alert systems after the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004.
The Jakarta Post said in an editorial the country's National Disaster Management Coordination Board had done "nothing of note to increase people's preparedness for disasters".
Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla told reporters the government would build an early warning system in Java and other areas in Indonesia in three years.
Indonesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", where the meeting of continental plates causes high volcanic and seismic activity.
Several sources have listed this tsunami as 2 meters in overall height. Mainstream media isn't known for underestimating news events.
~ Blue Jays ~
Has anyone found a link to any video of this tsunami? I've been trolling the internet without luck so far. Found some video of the aftermath, but not the amateur video noted in several reports, shown on local Indonesian TV.
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