[Kabar-indonesia] 6 Tsunami Updates: 109 Dead as Nighmare Returns [Wires (+WP; NYT)]

[JoyoNews at aol.com]

6 updates: 

- Kyodo: 109 killed in quake-triggered tsunami 
  on Java

- AFP: At least 105 dead as Indonesia's tsunami 
  nightmare returns

- WP: Dozens Reported Dead, Missing After 
  Tsunami

- NYT: Tsunami Kills Scores in Indonesia 
  After Quake 

- Reuters: Tsunami on Indonesia's Java coast 
  kills over 100

- AP: Tsunami Kills at Least 86 on Java Island 

109 killed in quake-triggered tsunami on Java

July 18 (Kyodo) -- At least 109 people were killed after a tsunami caused by 
a 
7.7-magnitude earthquake hit the southern coastal areas of the provinces of 
West Java, Central Java and Yogyakarta on Monday, the Jakarta-based private 
radio Elshinta reported Tuesday. 

More than 100 others are missing after the tsunami, according to the 
Associated Press. 

On Pangandaran Beach and its surrounding areas in West Java's Ciamis Regency, 
which was the hardest hit by the earthquake and tsunami, 53 people were 
confirmed dead, Rudy Supriatna Bahro, councilor at the Ciamis Legislative Council 
told Kyodo News on Monday. 

"Search and rescue operations are going on to find possible missing persons 
swept away by the tsunami," President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told a press 
conference after talking with local authorities in the regency by phone. 

On the nearby Cipatujah Beach, five people were found dead, according to the 
Jakarta-based private television network Metro TV. 

Local police officials in Yogyakarta Province also said two people were 
killed on Baron Beach in the province's Gunung Kidul Regency. Meanwhile, one person 
was found dead on Ayah Beach in Central Java Province's Kebumen Regency, 
Regent Rustriningsih told Kyodo News.    
 
According to the Jakarta-based private television radio station Elshinta, the 
disaster claimed four lives on a beach in Central Java's Cilacap Regency. 

Metro TV reported that hundreds are also missing following the tsunami. 

Calling Elshinta from Pangandaran, a woman, who identified herself only as 
Tety, said four members of a group of Dutch tourists, who were on the beach with 
her, went missing, possibly being swept away or just separating from the 
group. 

"I saw a two-meter-high wave coming from the sea and we, all of us in our 
60s, tried to run away as fast as possible to higher areas," she told the radio 
station, adding three people were found dead on the beach. "It's frightening," 
the woman added. 

The tsunami also destroyed several hotels on the coast, she said. 

Pangandaran is located about 140 kilometers southeast of Jakarta. 

"Our system has been working well. The Ciamis authorities have been carrying 
out their duties by vacating vulnerable areas and particularly evacuating and 
providing medical treatment to the injured," Yudhoyono said. 

The earthquake occurred in the Indian Ocean off Java at 3:19 p.m. The 
epicenter was 200 km south of Pangandaran and 10 km under the seabed, the 
meteorological agency in Jakarta said. 

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii said in its bulletin that a 
destructive widespread tsunami "does not exist based on historical earthquake and 
tsunami data." 

However, it said, "There is a possibility of a local tsunami that could 
affect coasts located usually no more than a hundred kilometers from the earthquake 
epicenter." 

"Areas further from the epicenter could experience small sea level changes 
and strong or unusual coastal currents," it added. 

Local authorities said tsunamis were also reported on the coasts of 
Sindangbarang on the southern coast of West Java and on Samas Beach in Yogyakarta 
Province. 

"We heard a kind of explosion and suddenly, the water went up," a Samas 
resident told Elshinta. 

The Jakarta-based private television network Surya Citra Televisi reported 
that at least two villages near Pangandaran were swept away by the tsunami. 
Houses also reportedly collapsed and fishing boats were damaged. 

Indonesia, with more than 17,000 islands, is prone to earthquakes. In 
December 2004, a powerful earthquake and subsequent tsunamis killed about 200,000 
people in Aceh Province and tens of thousands in Thailand, Sri Lanka, India and 
other areas around the perimeter of the Indian Ocean. 

A strong earthquake also rocked Yogyakarta and surrounding Central Java 
cities on May 27 this year, killing about 5,800 people. 

-----------------------------------------

At least 105 dead as Indonesia's tsunami nightmare returns

PANGANDARAN, Indonesia, July 18 (AFP) - At least 105 people were killed when 
an undersea earthquake unleashed huge waves on Indonesia's Java island, 
echoing the devastating 2004 Asian tsunami, the Red Cross said.

After a strong 7.7-magnitude quake convulsed the seabed off Java's south 
coast, waves up to three metres (10 feet) high wrecked buildings and sent boats 
crashing ashore, prompting thousands of residents to flee in panic.

Tsunami alerts were issued for parts of Indonesia and Australia, but they did 
not reach the victims, as there was no early warning system working in the 
disaster zone, according to an official at the geophysics agency in Jakarta.

Putu Suryawan, an official at the Indonesian Red Cross disaster center in the 
capital Jakarta, told AFP by telephone that as of 3:45 am Tuesday (2045 GMT 
Monday), 105 people were confirmed dead and 127 others were reported missing.

"This is a preliminary report. There is still a possibility for the figures 
to change," he told AFP. "This is still the early stages of the disaster."

The dead were residents of West Java, Yogyakarta and Central Java provinces, 
Suryawan said.

"My wife died in my arms," said 45-year-old Ujang Sudarma, choking back tears 
as he sat in front of the main hospital morgue in the West Java seaside 
resort of Pangandaran, one of the areas hardest hit by the killer waves.

"She was still alive when I got her here. But there was nobody who could help 
her," he said, adding that his four-year-old son had been swept away and was 
still unaccounted for.

"I don't know what to do and I don't have a reason to live."

Chunks of concrete, wooden planks and roof tiles littered the streets of 
Pangandaran and the beachfront, where 15-foot boats were thrown ashore.

Plastic beach chairs and children's swim toys were strewn along the roads. 
Live wires crackled in the street, and dead fish were embedded in the sand.

The stench of dead bodies permeated the early morning air. A few residents 
sat outside on wooden chairs, smoking and drinking coffee.

"The situation is almost similar to Aceh," local lawmaker Rudi Supriatna 
Bahro told Metro TV, referring to the Indonesian province where 168,000 people 
died in the giant waves of 2004.

The legislator added that thousands of people had taken shelter in mosques 
and other safe places.

"Many of the injured were suffering from broken bones," he said.

The state Antara news agency said hundreds had been injured and were in 
urgent need of medical supplies.

Early Tuesday, some 150 people were sheltering in Pangandaran's main mosque, 
softly chanting Islamic prayers or sleeping on straw mats, AFP witnessed.

On Monday, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called on residents to evacuate 
vulnerable areas along the coast.

"The search is ongoing for those who are still missing," he said, adding that 
military and rescue teams had been sent to the site. "It is important to take 
care of the dead and the injured."

At least five aftershocks rattled the area after the quake, which hit around 
3:19 pm (0819 GMT), with the epicenter in the sea off Pangandaran southeast of 
Jakarta, according to Indonesia's seismology center.

"At that moment, I was very fearful, very afraid for my life and hers," 
26-year-old Swiss tourist Heff Martin said, gesturing to his 36-year-old Indonesian 
fiancee.

Martin, wearing only his black swim trunks, said he was able to salvage his 
wallet, but that his other belongings had been destroyed by the waves.

Two Swedish children aged between five and 10 years old, along with four 
Dutch tourists, were reported missing in Pangandaran after the tsunami, officials 
in Sweden and the Netherlands said.

Fifteen inmates on the Nusakambangan prison island near Pangandaran were also 
missing, Metro TV reported.

The prison is currently holding three militants on death row for the 2002 
Bali bombings.

The seabed tremor was felt for more than one minute and rattled workers in 
tall office buildings in Jakarta and in the West Java provincial capital Bandung.

Indonesia was the nation hardest hit by the devastating December 2004 Indian 
Ocean tsunami catastrophe, which killed around 220,000 people across the 
region -- and 168,000 in Aceh alone.

But the official at the geophysics agency in Jakarta told AFP: "We still 
don't have a tsunami early warning system in place."

Indonesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", where the meeting of 
continental plates causes high volcanic and seismic activity.

Both the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii and the Japan 
Meteorological Agency issued tsunami alerts for parts of Indonesia and Australia after the 
quake hit.

A tsunami warning was also issued by local authorities for India's Nicobar 
islands, but no immediate damage was reported there or in Australia. 

-------------------------------------

The Washington Post
July 17, 2006

Dozens Reported Dead, Missing After Tsunami

By Alan Sipress
Washington Post Foreign Service

JAKARTA, Indonesia, July 17 -- A strong underwater earthquake off the 
southern coast of Indonesia's main Java island triggered a tsunami Monday, swamping 
several village seafronts and killing at least 82 people, the Indonesian Red 
Cross said.

Seventy-seven people also are reported missing and thousands more are fleeing 
to higher ground, the Associated Press reported, quoting witnesses, media 
reports and local government and Red Cross officials.

The earthquake, measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale, rocked Java at about 3:15 
p.m., followed within the hour by several more aftershocks. In the capital 
Jakarta, located on Java's north coast, some office workers in high-rise 
buildings said they felt the tremors.

In the south coastal resort town of Pangandaran, witnesses told Indonesian 
radio and television stations that a wall of water crashed into the seafront, 
badly damaging modest hotels, eateries and rows of beachfront homes.

"All the houses were destroyed along the beach," a woman named Teti told 
el-Shinta radio in a rambling, emotional account. She said she had been playing 
with a half dozen friends along the beach when they spotted the wall of water 
nearly five feet high.

"It chased from us the beach and we ran to the hill," she said. Teti added 
she saw three dead bodies.

Indonesians became acutely aware of the ocean's devastating power in December 
2004 when the South Asia tsunami, triggered by a gargantuan undersea 
earthquake off Sumatra island, left more than 170,000 dead or missing in Aceh province 
and flattened much of the provincial capital. At least 235,000 people died 
that day when the water crashed into coastlines from Thailand to India to East 
Africa.

Another witness, Miswen, who lives 50 yards from the ocean in Pangadaran, 
told the radio station Monday that he saw the seawater recede shortly after the 
earthquake. Within half an hour, he saw three huge swells racing toward the 
shore.

"I shouted to people to start running. We were afraid that what happened in 
Aceh would happen here," he said. "I'm sure many people died on the beach."

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono initially told reporters that 
the tsunami had killed at least five people. He said rescue efforts were 
underway to locate those swept away by the waves. "Up to now, we can't tell how many 
people are dead and hurt," Yudhoyono said. "The local government has started 
to evacuate people from the area."

Staff writer Bill Brubaker and special correspondent Yayu Yuniar contributed 
to this report.

---------------------------------------

The New York Times
July 17, 2006

Tsunami Kills Scores in Indonesia After Quake 

By RAYMOND BONNER

JAKARTA, July 17 -- A powerful undersea earthquake struck off the south coast 
of Indonesia this afternoon, creating a tsunami that killed scores of people 
on shore. 

The death toll, already estimated to be as high as 80, is expected to rise as 
officials sort through the debris of damaged buildings on the Java coast. 

The wave was about 6 feet high, considerably smaller than the waves that hit 
in Aceh province and elsewhere in the region in December 2004, killing more 
than 200,000. 

Still, today’s wave carried tremendous destructive power, and appeared to 
have hit hardest at Pangandaran, a resort popular with Indonesians and foreigners.

The wave heaved boats on the shore; destroyed simple guest cottages, 
beachside kiosks and restaurants; and may have swept some surfers out to sea. Most of 
the area’s villagers make a living from fishing or rice farming.

The earthquake that set off the tsunami registered between 6.8 and 7.7 on the 
Richter scale, according to early estimates reported by Reuters. It was 
centered beneath the Indian Ocean about 110 miles south of Pangandaran. 

The earthquake struck around 3:15 p.m. local time and was felt in Jakarta, 
more than 200 miles north of the epicenter. High-rise office buildings swayed, 
and workers scurried to get out. There were at least two large aftershocks.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii issued a tsunami warning about 
15 minutes after the earthquake hit, but Indonesia has not yet installed a 
warning system on Java, the most populous of the country’s thousands of islands. 
Australia also issued an alert for West Australia and Christmas Island, but 
only small swells less than two feet high were reported there.

Conflicting reports reached Jakarta this evening about the number of dead. 

A local official told Indonesia’s Metro TV that at least 37 had been killed, 
but “the number is still going up.” A Red Cross official told Reuters that 80 
people had been killed.

A local television station, Trans TV, said that 40 people had drowned in 
Kebumen, about 30 miles east of Pangandaran, the Sydney Morning Herald reported on 
its website.

In Batu Keras, an Indonesian surfer said that two bodies had been found, and 
that he had seen some French tourists who were surfing be swept away, the 
newspaper reported. “I don’t know what happened to them,” he said. 

A tsunami is produced when an earthquake thrusts part of the seabed upward. 
The resulting waves have little in common with wind-driven surf, which has a 
very short distance from the crest of one wave to that of the next. 

An earthquake briefly jolts an entire column of water, hundreds or thousands 
of feet tall, upward and outward from the sea floor. The result, once the 
resulting waves reach shore, is more like an instantaneous six-foot rise in the 
tide than a crashing breaker that quickly washes away again. 

It is unusual for an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2, around the middle of 
the range reported Monday, to generate even a modest tsunami, said Dr. Bruce 
Jaffe, a United States Geological Survey oceanographer who is in charge of a 
federal project aimed at clarifying tsunami threats. 

In this case, the thrust must have been sufficient to jolt the sea, he said. 

“It’s all related to how much seafloor displacement there is,” he said. “If 
you have a plastic cup of water and you punch it on the bottom, a bigger 
punch will create a bigger surge.”

Andrew C. Revkin contributed reporting from New York for this article.

----------------------------------------

Tsunami on Indonesia's Java coast kills over 100

By Heru Asprihanto

PANGANDARAN, Indonesia, July 18 (Reuters) - A tsunami triggered by a strong 
undersea earthquake off the coast of Indonesia's Java island on Monday killed 
105 people, swept away buildings and damaged hundreds of fishing boats, 
officials and witnesses said.

News of the disaster spread panic across a region still recovering from a 
tsunami less than two years ago in which nearly 230,000 people were killed or 
reported missing, mostly in Indonesia. But there were no reports of casualties or 
damage in any other country from Monday's tsunami.

"There are 105 people dead from 10 regencies, 148 people are injured and 127 
still missing," said Putu Suryawan, the official at the Indonesian Red Cross 
disaster center, adding that 2,875 people had been displaced from their homes.

"Possibly this number could rise because many people are still missing."

Waves up to 1.5 meters (five feet) high crashed into Pangandaran beach near 
the town of Ciamis, 270 km (170 miles) southeast of Jakarta, killing 46 people 
in Ciamis and another 46 in the central Java port of Cilacap, Suryawan said.

Another Red Cross official, Fitri Sidikah, said around 650 fishing boats had 
been damaged. "We are going to send body bags, tents and other equipment," she 
said.

A local official, Rudi Supriatna Bahro, told Metro TV up to half a kilometer 
(550 yards) from the beach was affected by the tsunami, with flimsily 
constructed buildings flattened. "We need tents, food and medical aid."

In the Pangandaran medical clinic in the early hours of Tuesday morning, 
several victims' bodies were laid out on the floor covered by cloth. A police 
officer told Reuters TV there were about 40 bodies in all in the clinic.

A 40-year-old Belgian tourist called Ian, who did not give a last name, said 
he was in a bar when suddenly water rushed in, knocking him unconscious. He 
woke up in the clinic, he said.

"I was drinking at the bar. The sea wall came after me ... I was thinking 
this is the end," said Ian.

FLATTENED

The waves washed away wooden cottages and kiosks lining the shoreline facing 
the Indian Ocean, witnesses said.

"When the waves came, I heard people screaming and then I heard something 
like a plane about to crash nearby and I just ran," Uli Sutarli, a plantation 
worker who was on Pangandaran beach, told Reuters by telephone.

"All wooden structures are flattened to the ground but hotel buildings made 
out of concrete are still standing," he said.

Indonesia's official Antara news agency reported deaths had occurred at two 
other beach resorts in Java.

"The search is still going on to find those who probably have been swept away 
by the tsunami waves," Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, whose 
mainly Muslim country is the world's fourth most populous, told reporters.

Sweden's Foreign Ministry said two Swedish children from a holidaying family 
were believed to be missing. There were no immediate reports of other 
non-Indonesians dead or missing.

The U.S.-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the quake had a magnitude 
of 7.2, while the U.S. Geological Survey put it at 7.7. Indonesia's state 
meteorology and geophysics agency said the quake's strength was 6.8 on the Richter 
Scale.

"RING OF FIRE"

Indonesia's 17,000 islands sprawl along a belt of intense volcanic and 
seismic activity, part of what is called the "Pacific Ring of Fire."

A tsunami warning for Java's southern coast and nearby Christmas Island was 
issued by the Pacific Center. Police on Christmas Island, an Australian 
territory south of Indonesia, said there was no damage there.

India also issued a warning for the Andaman and Nicobar islands, badly hit by 
the 2004 tsunami, but officials said there was no real threat. The Maldives, 
a low-lying chain of islands to the southwest of India, also issued a warning.

The December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was triggered by a massive earthquake. 
Nearly 170,000 people were killed or reported missing in Indonesia's Aceh 
province. Tens of thousands died elsewhere, the majority in Sri Lanka, India and 
Thailand.

(With additional reporting by Achmad Sukarsono, Telly Nathalia, Diyan Jari, 
Muhamad Ari and Yoga Rusmana in Jakarta)

----------------------------------------

Tsunami Kills at Least 86 on Java Island 

By IRWAN FIRDAUS 
Associated Press Writer

PANGANDARAN, Indonesia, July 17 (AP) -- A tsunami crashed into beach resorts 
and fishing villages on Java island Monday, killing at least 86 people and 
leaving scores 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 climbing trees or fleeing to higher ground to 
escape. Others crowded into inland mosques to pray.

"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 which appeared to be the hardest-hit area. Also on 
the beach were her son, mother, sister, brother, nephews. All except her mother 
are missing.

She said a series of large waves as tall as coconut trees came and then the 
water began to recede.

"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. But 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 weeping family members were coming in and identifying the dead.

The Indonesian Red Cross, police and district officials said at least 82 
people were killed and 77 others were unaccounted for, most in Pangandaran and 
nearby Cilacap. El-Shinta radio reported four other deaths.

"We are still evacuating areas and cross-checking data," Red Cross official 
Arifin Muhadi told The Associated Press.

Meanwhile, 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, from 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 the 53-year-old, who escaped with minor cuts to the 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 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," Miswan said.

Witnesses said the wave came several hundred yards inland in some places. 
Buildings sit close to the beach in Pangandaran.

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 300 feet 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. Damage and casualties 
were reported at several places along the 110 miles of beach affected, 
officials and media reports said.

"All the houses are destroyed along the beach," one woman, Teti, told 
el-Shinta radio. "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 6.3-magnitude 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 Monday'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 warnings saying there could be a tsunami in 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.

Indonesia is on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and 
fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

-----------------------------------------
Joyo Indonesia News Service
------------------------------------------