INDONESIA: Amateur video emerges of latest Indonesian tsunami as mass burial held for unidentified

Amateur video emerged in Indonesia on Wednesday (Juloy 19) showing how residents and tourists on Java island recognised the signs of Monday's tsunami and fled to higher ground. The sea receded before waves up to 1.5 metres (five feet) came crashing ashore. The waves washed cars, motorbikes and boats into hotels and storefronts, flattened homes and restaurants and flooded rice fields up to 500 metres (550 yards) from the sea along a stretch of the densely populated coastline. The toll from Monday's tsunami climbed to 550 on Wednesday, while a search continued for about 275 people still missing. In the worst-hit town, Pangandaran, the authorities buried unidentified 26 victims in one grave. A crowd gathered to watch as two bulldozers covered the unclaimed bodies. Heavy equipment to help search for bodies under the rubble was in place along parts of the 160-km (100-mile) stretch of south Java's coastline that was battered after the 7.7-magnitude undersea earthquake. More than 54,000 people were displaced from wrecked fishing villages and beach resorts, adding to the rehabilitation headache for the authorities after an earthquake that killed more than 5,700 people in central Java less than two months ago. No tsunami warning system was set up for the southern coast of Java after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that left 230,000 killed or missing, including 170,000 in Indonesia. Some officials considered the area less likely to be hit by a tsunami than others in Indonesia, where an early warning system is currently being implemented along the coast of Sumatra. As efforts continued to find survivors in Java, an aftershock of 4.8 shook Pangandaran beach on Wednesday morning, sparking fears of another tsunami and sending people scrambling off the beach for higher ground.

ITN Source | July 19, 2006

Tags:. .crashing. .currently. .central. .beach. .along