Mentawai tsunami death toll triples
Mentawai tsunami death toll triples
Brenti’s home in Muntei Baru-Waru in Batumonga village on North Pagai Island — one of Mentawai’s three main islands, was devastated by an earthquake-triggered tsunami on Monday night.
More than 300 people were killed by the tsunami and about 100 more missing, according to authorities. They said earlier that 113 had died.
Brenti said the first wave was eight meters high and engulfed half of the hamlet. But the second wave struck like a giant wall and was higher than a coconut tree. It struck harder and deeper, eventually reaching the slopes of a hill more than 800 meters inland.
“Only 40 people survived. All 73 houses were gone. The night after the disaster, we — the injured and babies — slept under the rain on a hill in the back of our hamlet,” the 40-year-old said, as quoted by Josh Kamatis, a disaster post coordinator for North and South Pagai Islands in Sikakap, who shared Brenti’s story with The Jakarta Post.
“Those who survived were those who ran to higher ground after the first wave struck, while the dead were mostly those who could not escape the second wave.”
Brenti’s wife and two children were swept away in the tsunami.
When Brenti left his ruined hamlet, dozens of bodies lay scattered on the ground and over 100 people were still missing.
He said that most residents had not felt the 7.2-magnitude quake as they were inside their homes due to rain. Residents were shocked after hearing a thundering sound that resembled loud wave breaks about 15 minutes after the earthquake.
Soon afterwards, the tsunami swept the hamlet.
“The hamlet is just a name now. No more buildings. On Wednesday, 80 dead victims were found and 102 still missing. There were only 40 survivors,” said Kamatis, adding the dead had been buried the same day.
Two days after the disaster struck, the death toll continues to rise, with the disaster post listing 282 dead and 411 missing.
The tsunami badly damaged 25,426 houses, flattened six hamlets and forced 4,500 residents to evacuate to makeshift shelters.
Rescue workers and relief supplies intended for more than a dozen villages on the islands arrived by plane and helicopter on Wednesday.
West Sumatra Disaster Mitigation Agency Operational Control Center head Ade Edward defended the agency’s decision to lift a tsunami warning that had been issued immediately after the temblor struck.
He said his office had not established a tsunami early warning system for Mentawai Islands, adding that even the most advanced equipment could not have processed warning signs fast enough to avoid disaster in the regency after the earthquake.
“The [epicenter] was very close and the tsunami arrived in just 15 minutes, so it was unnecessary,” Ade told the Post on Wednesday.
“The most sophisticated system currently available needs five minutes to process information from an earthquake before issuing a tsunami warning — and a issuing a command to respond to the field would take more than 15 minutes. It would have been too late for Mentawai.”
An early warning system would have been effective for the provincial capital, Padang, and for other areas along West Sumatra’s western coast that were more than 200 kilometers from the epicenter, he said.
When the earthquake hit on Oct. 25, Ade said his office had processed information from weather stations but did not issue an evacuation order since the sea level had not decreased. “In 15 minutes, we decided that a tsunami would not hit the west coast of Sumatra and informed the public by radio that there was no need to evacuate,” he said.
Mentawai Islands regency lawmaker Jan Winnen Sipayung said that some victims might have been asleep when the earthquake struck.
“Nearly all of the villages that were devastated by the tsunami were unconnected to the power network, so most residents went to sleep early. Some of the people likely failed to flee to safety after the quake,” he said Wednesday.
Merapi claims more lives and its guardian
Merapi claims more lives and its guardian
Rescuers combed the slopes of Mount Merapi on Wednesday, one day after the country’s most active volcano was rocked by an eruption that spewed hot clouds, killing 31 people, including a man known as the volcano’s guardian.
Hot clouds — known as wedhus gembel, a Javanese expression for sheep-shaped pyroclastic clouds — were expelled from the mountain at an estimated speed of 300 kilometers per hour at a temperature of 600 degree Celsius.
On Wednesday, the stench of sulfur and dead livestock was in the air with thick ash covering flattened houses, turning the area eerie white.
Most fatalities came from Kinahrejo hamlet in Cangkringan district, Sleman regency, Yogyakarta, or the home of the volcano’s spiritual keeper Ki Surakso Hargo, better known as Mbah Maridjan. The 85-year-old’s body was found at his home in the hamlet, located 5 kilometers from the mountain’s raging crater. The burnt and prostrated body, presumed to be in prayer, was identified by relatives and this image was instantly circulated through mobile phones.
The disaster also killed vivanews.com journalist Yuniawan Nugroho and two volunteers, Tutur Priyono from Bantul Red Cross and Slamet Ngatiran from Tagana (Taruna Siaga Bencana) Yogyakarta.
Rescuers only managed to evacuate 12 of 15 bodies from Maridjan’s house Tuesday night due to bad weather, hot cloud and ash. The rest were evacuated early Wednesday.
Yogyakarta Police Disaster Victim Identification Unit spokesman Comr. Agung Hadi Wijanarko said identification of the victims was expected to be completed late Wednesday.
“We hope the identification will have finished for the scheduled mass funeral tomorrow at 10 a.m.,” Agung said at Yogyakarta’s Dr. Sardjito General Hospital Wednesday.
Most victims suffered 70 to 80 percent burns to their bodies and were hardly recognizable.
Head of Dr. Sardjito’s public relation division, Heru Nugroho, said the hospital received 13 bodies until after midnight on Tuesday and received another 12 bodies the following morning. Twenty victims were men and five women. The number of fatalities may increase.
The volcano is situated in four regencies – Sleman, Magelang, Klaten and Boyolali – in Yogyakarta and Central Java provinces.
Merapi’s eruption, which took place the day it was put on top-alert status, took residents by surprise, forcing many, including those living outside the 10-kilometer danger zone, to flee to shelters.
Resident Tukirah of Pangukrejo hamlet in Cangkringan, said the disaster happened quickly. “Suddenly we heard loud roars followed by sirens,” after which everyone fled.
About 19,000 residents took refuge in seven shelters in Yogyakarta, which in all can only accommodate 12,000 evacuees. Some 30,000 others took to 39 shelters in Magelang.
Many locals from Yogyakarta who arrived in the shelters after the 5:03 p.m. eruption on Tuesday were not provided with food supplies.
“Supplies such as bottled water arrived at shelters at 1:30 a.m. [on Wednesday],” said Agusti Handayani, who took refuge with her family.
Sleman Regent Sri Purnomo expressed regret that a high number of fatalities resulted from reluctance to evacuate. “Residents should have obeyed instructions to evacuate since it was made based on scientific calculations. We can’t fight nature but we must avoid disaster.”
App developer, at 12 years old
BANDUNG, Indonesia – For some, creating apps or games can seem like a daunting challenge. However, Fahma Waluya Rosmansyah spends his free time creating games that help Indonesian children learn the English language or even basic maths skills. That in itself is worthy of a round of applause, but we forgot to mention that Fahma is only 12 years old. Now that’s amazing.
Fahma was born in Indonesia in 1998 and like most kids, loves playing with his games console, PC games and with mobile phones, and it was when Fahma reached fifth grade that he began to learn how to develop with Adobe Flash. That same year he created his first application called BAHANA which allows young children to learn the alphabet, numbers and colours – all from a Nokia E71. In his sixth grade, he developed over 5 more applications, one of which is downloadable from the Ovi Store. ENRICH enables children to translate Indonesian words into English using colourful images and clearly pronounced words. MANTAP is a similar app but instead teaches Indonesian children Maths, and should be available from the Ovi Store in the coming weeks.
Fahma tells us he can create an application from scratch in less than 12 hours, with the help of his younger sister, Hania, who provides some of the sound content. She is also his main source of inspiration and beta tester. Having recently been awarded the Indonesia ICT Award 2010, Fahma plans to continue developing apps for local Indonesian children and even hopes that one day his apps can be made available to every child, globally.
For a 12 year old, currently going through school, we find this an incredible story and shows what the young mind can achieve, and what’s even more commendable is that these apps are used to help young children learn some valuable life skills. Download ENRICH for free, from the Ovi Store.
